A New Beginning?
by CharlotteHolmes
Summary: Kaito and Aoko have been left scarred with their experiences with the Black Organisation and have to go into hiding together. AU
1. Introductions

**A New Beginning?**

With a long defeated sigh Kaito took up the file detailing his new identity which had been slid across the table at him. His short life as Kaito Kuroba was officially over. It was ridiculous really; he was too young to spend the remainder of his life living under a false name, but he had to. All because of The Organisation.

They had killed his father when he was 5 years old and 2 years ago, at the age of 17 he had found out the truth about his death and the Kaito Kid. He had sworn that he would make them pay in blood and started investigating using the few details that he had. Unfortunately his plan had not succeeded or gone the way he had predicted and they had tracked him down and tried to kill him. Now at the age of 19 he was forced to seek help from the government to hide from them and come up with a new plan. He had given up everything that he knew in return for them helping him.

It felt strange to relocate under a false identity. He should be attending university now living the student life: studying, socialising and drinking too much alcohol not sitting in a cramped office in an anonymous government building with a similarly anonymous man sitting opposite him.

After a deep intake of breath he opened up the file. Inside was his new name and details as well as new personal documents like his birth certificate and driver's license. He didn't mind his new name Shinichi Kudo. It meant that he was now one truth instead of being a phantom thief. As he shifted through the documents he came across a marriage certificate. It hit him like a blow from a metal baseball bat.

"I'm married." It wasn't a question, just a bare statement.

The government agent took it as a question. Pushing his plain black framed glasses up his nose he replied, "Yes. As it happens there is someone in the same situation as you so we thought we would kill 2 birds with one stone and relocate you two as a couple."

Kaito raised one eyebrow sceptically, but kept quiet. This was his chance to get away from The Organisation and bring them down with help from the government and their resources which was a lot more than what he had had before. If it meant that he had an annoying woman as his unwanted wife, so be it. He would just have to put up with her. Hopefully she wouldn't be too bad if she had been through what he had.

"So, when do I get to meet uh, Ran Mori?" he enquired reading the name off the certificate.

He could have sworn that her name was similar to the author of Arsène Lupin rendered in Japanese.

"She will be momentarily. She is being briefed in another room like you."

There was a light tap at the door.

"That should be her now," the agent said, before getting up and unlocking the door.

He led a young woman who was the same age as Kaito into the small office, dismissing the agent with her. Kaito looked her up and down noting every detail of his new partner. She had soft messy brown hair like his. Her eyes were bloodshot with red and there were darkly defined black bags under her eyes. Her skin was deathly pale and snow white.

I must look like that to her, Kaito thought to himself. He decided that she would be more attractive once she got some proper sleep. She was pretty, but in a subtle way.

"Kuroba-san, this Aoko Nakamori-san," the agent introduced, bringing back Kaito's mind to the current proceedings. "Nakamori-san, this is Kaito Kuroba-san."

Kaito smiled at Aoko who to him looked fragile and about to crack. He held out his hand and conjured up a rose. Something which he hadn't done for years.

"I'm Kaito Kuroba. It's nice to meet you."

Aoko looked at him doubtfully before taking the rose. She sniffed it delicately and the corners of her mouth twitched as if she were about to smile. Her eyes lit up with a sparkle momentarily, then it was gone again.

"It's nice to meet you too," she replied quietly in a voice completely devoid of any emotion.

The agent coughed and Aoko took a seat next to Kaito who found himself speculating what had happened to her. Had she been kidnapped once by Them? Why were her eyes so dead? He hoped that he didn't seem like that to her. He hadn't slept particularly well the night before, but what was new about that?

"From the information that we have gained from the two of you we have been able to formulate a strategy against this organisation," the agent began. "So we think that it is best for you two to leave Japan for now, under the Witness Protection programme for your own safety and to stop Kuroba-san from interfering."

"Where are we going to?" Kaito ignored the jibe. He hoped it wasn't one of those foreign countries with a barren landscape and with a permanently hot climate.

"A small village in England. You will be flying there privately with an influential member of our agency."

England. That didn't sound too bad. He had always had a desire to go there. Now that desire could be fulfilled. He stole a glance at Aoko. She had shown no emotion so far and was just staring at the agent. Why was she so deadpan? It annoyed Kaito.

"Our agent Saguru Hakuba will the means of contact between us and you once you are there. You will be flying by his personal plane," the agent explained. "Please do not attract any unwanted attention; I read your school records Kuroba-san. Do not do anything silly and get yourself killed. The Organisation had people everywhere so please be careful.

Kaito noticed that Aoko didn't get a warning and that the agent was mainly directing his words at him as opposed to bother of the. He wondered what she thought about them posing as a married couple and having to live together. It couldn't be a pleasant idea for a quiet person like her.

The next hour passed like that. Kaito was told not to do things and Aoko just sat there listening, completely ignoring him. After the they had signed various documents and had left the building for the airport where the plane and Saguru Hakuba were waiting to take off. It would have been a long and awkward car ride if Kaito had interfered with Aoko's peace.

Aoko was sat in the back seat with her gaze fixed on something in the distance out the window and Kaito sat next to her thinking of ways to start a conversation.

"How good is your English?" He asked impulsively. It had been bothering him ever since he had been told of their destination. Why England? He could speak English well, but for it work Aoko needed to be good at it too.

"Good enough," she replied in the appropriate language without tearing her gaze away from the window.

"What's your favourite colour?"

This time she turned right round and looked him straight in the eye, something with she hadn't done yet. Kaito blanched at her stare which was quite unnerving.

"It's just… we will have to know things about each other if we are going to pose as husband and wife," he defended his question.

"I don't have one," she replied, turning away again.

For the second time that day Kaito used what had been his favourite magic trick. Along with a pink puff of smoke he conjured up roses in every basic colour. He found using his old magic tricks very natural and easy. It reminded him of his ambition to grow up and become a professional magician like his father. Those days had gone a long time ago.

"Of course you do, everyone does," he chided her gently. "Here, pick one."

With a sceptical glance at the roses Aoko hesitated at the white rose and plucked out the red once from his hand and regarded it silently as if it reminded her of something.

"What's your favourite colour?" She asked as she turned to look at him.

"Me? White; something that is pure and unblemished, yet becomes dirty so quickly.

The car turned onto the road that led to the private runway and Kaito disposed of the remaining roses with another puff of smoke. Aoko held onto hers tightly even when they got out of the car and onto the runway to board the plane.

Kaito was please with the progress that he had made so far. He had gotten her to volunteer a question and she had improved her attitude towards him slightly. There was still hope. He told himself that he would be able to get her to smile and show emotion.

After all he was going to be spending an unfixed amount of time with her. It could be a few years or a decade and he did not want to spend it with a person with the emotions and facial characteristics of a blank wall.

* * *

><p><strong>I've had this idea in my head for a while which I have been playing around with and I wanted to write it out to see how it came out. I'm quite happy with it so far.<strong>


	2. Bait

**A New Beginning**

**Chapter 2**

Within five minutes of meeting him Kaito already detested Saguru Hakuba. He hated everything about him from his neat blonde hair to the way he lingered over kissing Aoko's hand. He found himself happy that Aoko treated Hakuba the same way she treated everyone else; ignored him and didn't say much. Kaito could only see one potentially useful him about him: he could persuade him into giving out some information about Aoko's past. He had honed his persuading skills over the years as he investigated the Organisation and he hadn't yet found a female aside from Aoko that wouldn't do anything for him. Of course with Hakuba he was going to have to change his tactics. Only slightly.

"It is a very long flight from Japan to England and we will be stopping briefly in Paris to refuel. Luckily I have my own private airfield so we don't have to land at a public airport in London," Hakuba explained, flicking his hair- something which was getting on Kaito's nerves. He smiled as if he was modelling for a toothpaste advert.

Annoyingly for Kaito the blonde sat himself down in the seat next to Aoko who was staring out of the window again for takeoff. After they were allowed to take off their seatbelts they gathered around a table for another briefing. Kaito would have preferred to be back in the windowless office in Tokyo to have another briefing rather than on a plane with a blonde snob.

"First things first, do you know who I am?" Hakuba started with a flick of his hair.

"You're Saguru Hakuba," Kaito answered, wondering what the point of the question was. Surely he wasn't going to be reminding them of his name every 5 minutes?"

Hakuba's mouthed twitched. "You have never heard of me? Have you ever read a newspaper? What about you Aoko-chan?"

Ignoring the familiarising of her name, Aoko looked up at him instead of staring down at the weave of her trousers which she had been doing for the past 10 minutes.

"You're a detective."

The detective in question brightened like a light bulb being switched on and bowed his head humbly.

"Yes, I am a detective; a fairly well known one at that." He looked pointedly at Kaito who scowled. "My father is the Chief of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, but I prefer to work privately. I became aware of the Organisation by chance during a case and I have become part of the resistance against it along with several other teenage detectives. Kuroba, have you ever heard of Shinichi Kudo? And for God's sake, do not say that it is you."

Kaito struggled with the name. He had heard it before, but locating exactly where he had heard it before was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. He did read the newspapers, but only to see if there was anything involving the Organisation and he never paid attention to the detectives' names in the articles. After some strenuous thinking he slotted the name into place. A few days before he had had his first real contact with the Organisation, he had read the police files for a big money laundering case of a major company and the detective that had discovered it was Shinichi Kudo. He would have done some research of Shinichi Kudo, but his life had completely changed after his first contact with the Organisation so he had completely forgotten.

"Yes, I know who he is," Kaito said, now beginning to ponder the significance and reason behind his new alias. If Shinichi Kudo has been involved in the investigations in cases that the Organisation was behind or connected to, then they would definitely have him under observation or planning ways to get him on their side.

From his suit jacket pocket Hakuba produced a small photo and laid it upside down on the table so Kaito and Aoko could see. It was a photo of a couple that had an uncanny resemblance to Kaito and Aoko, there was only one real significant difference- they had tidier hair and the woman was smiling brightly which was something that Kaito couldn't see Aoko doing at the moment. The woman was wearing a long white wedding dress and holding a bouquet of flowers and the man was wearing a white suit and had a rose in his pocket. The photo was taken outside of a church.

"This is the real Shinichi Kudo and Ran Mori," Hakuba informed them primly. "You two will be impersonating them."

Kaito added himself and Aoko into the equation and realised that the offer that had been given to them by the mysterious government was not as good as it had originally sounded. He and Aoko were going to be bait to lure the Organisation into coming after them.

"Where is the real Shinichi Kudo?" Kaito asked suspiciously. He was going to be annoyed if he found out the detective was holidaying in the Caribbean whilst he was dealing with all the hitmen that had been intended for him.

Hakuba frowned and took back the photo. "He… is not in a good condition right now. After solving a bank heist case that directly involved the Organisation, steps were taken by Them to ensure that he did not interfere again…"

"If he is dead, why am I impersonating him?"

Hakuba looked as if he had been anticipating than question. He laid his hands flat on the table and began to explain.

"Please don't interrupt what I am about to say, Kuroba. Shinichi Kudo is not dead, he is just not in a good condition, but the Organisation think that they killed him so he is laying low for now. So we thought that his connection would be a dead end for investigation. Then you two turned up on our doorstep. After spotting the resemblance we realised that we could get rid of the problem of hiding you two and Shinichi Kudo in one strike. If we are lucky we might actually be able to get some information about them before the plan gets discovered."

"So I'm going to be Shinichi Kudo so they can come after me because I'm a threat and then you are going to try to capture them," Kaito surmised. "Am I right?"

Hakuba was surprised that Kaito was taking it so well and wasn't protesting or threatening him like he had expected to. Anyone else besides those two would not take the news that they were going to be acting as bait for a dangerous organisation so well.

"What if I refuse the generous offer and go off on my own?"

And Kaito thought that he had seen all of Hakuba's range of smiles. His mouth stretched into a narrow smile to show his teeth and Kaito swore that he saw a glimpse of vampire teeth.

"I would not have thought that you were in the position to disagree, Kuroba. You are in my plane, several thousand feet up in the air and once you get off and leave us you will be cut off from any support we could have given you," Hakuba said evenly, still smiling like a vampire. "You would be dead meat for the Organisation."

Releasing a defeated sigh Kaito sat back in his seat and decided that it was a waste of time to have an argument with Hakuba- the annoying blonde had made some valid points and he did want to be part of the downfall of the treacherous organisation that had killed his father even if it was only a small part and he died in the process. He wanted to avenge his death.

Turning to Aoko he said, "What do you think of it, Nakamori-san?"

Aoko looked even paler now and more distressed. Her hands were shaking slightly. "I don't see that there is any other option. I need their protection and to have that I have to do as they say."

It was the longest speech that Kaito had heard her make all day and yet again he found himself wondering what had happened to her to make her like that.

"There you have it Kaito Kuroba; a very good reason as to why you should go along with it. Now are there any other questions?"

There was a defined silence for a few seconds in response to the question as Kaito tried to think of a question that would annoy Hakuba, then Aoko broke the silence with a question that Kaito wished that he had thought of, "what happened to Ran Mori?"

From what Kaito could infer from the expression on Hakuba's face, he guessed that it was not a question that he had been looking forward to answering. Hakuba steepled his fingers like Sherlock Holmes before answering.

"We don't know," he admitted reluctantly. "She has completely disappeared. Either she was kidnapped or she is trying to go after them by herself. Her husband chose not to let her know what he was investigating or what happened to him, but she could have found something out."

Kaito yawned loudly without really thinking about it. Hakuba gladly took it as a signal to stop the questions so he wouldn't need to admit that he didn't know something. He stood up and suggested that they all get some sleep.

It was just after 12pm Japan time when Kaito was awoken from his fitful and uncomfortable sleep- it was the best night's sleep he had in a while, by Hakuba walking past his seat quietly, presumably on his way to the toilet. He sat up alert in his seat underneath a blanket, recalling that he had planned to corner him to question him about Aoko. Now he had the perfect opportunity.

Quickly he looked over at Aoko who looked fast asleep wrapped in two blankets with her eye mask on. Taking her to be asleep he silently rushed to follow Hakuba.

He stood outside the toilet door and waited. He knew that the detective was in there as the door locked said engaged. After a few minutes there was a gurgling flush and the sound of running water. Then the door slid open and Hakuba came out. Before he even had time to register Kaito's presence Kaito had slammed his hand against the wall, blocking the way.

"What do you want Kuroba?" Hakuba asked testily, wanting to get back to sleep.

"In order for me to be able to progress and impersonate Shinichi Kudo I need to know some more about my "wife". I'm not living with her without knowing anything about her besides her name."

Hakuba seemed to shake himself awake. "You have a point," he said, flattening his hair which had become messed up. "Come with me."

* * *

><p><strong>I don't think that I will update this anymore as it does not seem to be very popular.<strong>


	3. Tea?

**A New Beginning?**

**Chapter 3**

Hakuba lead Kaito down a short, dark corridor that led down from the toilet to a small office. He switched the light on and Kaito could see that on one wall there was a flatscreen television, the complete Sherlock Holmes collection on a bookshelf. At the other end of the room there was a circular table with two uncomfortable looking chairs. Hakuba walked in and opened a cupboard beneath the table. Kaito stretched out his cramped arms and took a seat at the table. His excitement at finding out about Aoko's past had eradicated his fatigue completely.

After some mysterious rummaging around Hakuba produced a thick file and slammed it down on the table. He opened it to take out a disk that had been sealed in a clear plastic wallet.

"Before you read it I think you should watch this video first," Hakuba said as he crossed over to the television and slotted the disk in and turned it on.

The video started with Aoko's face leaning in to the camera lens. The timestamp on the video read December 2010. Kaito only just recognised that the girl was Aoko as her face was browner, her eyes were alive and she was smiling brightly as if she didn't have a care in the world. He couldn't help but think that she was actually quite pretty when she smiled properly and that he wouldn't have minded knowing her then 2 years ago.

Hakuba paused the video.

"What happened to her?" Kaito whispered.

The detective unclipped a photo from the file and passed it to him. The photo was of a male teenager with a sullen face and short silvery blonde hair with a fringe that covered most of his face. In the photo the man was smoking a cigarette and scowling and was wearing a school uniform

"She met a boy… and they started going out. Eventually after they left school they moved in together," Hakuba explained regretfully. "Then things turned nasty."

He pressed play.

The Aoko on screen cleared her throat self consciously and beamed at the camera. Kaito felt a pang and saddened at the contrast to the Aoko he had met today.

"Hello." She turned around and smiled at someone out of shot before turning back to the camera. "We've just moved into our new apartment and I thought we should make a video to commemorate it."

She went briefly out of shot before returning with a man who Kaito immediately recognised. Now that the fringe was out of the way slightly and the silvery blonde hair was longer he knew who it was.

"Gin," he spat.

Hakuba stopped the video and took the disk out. "Yes, that is the Organisation member known as "Gin". Quite soon after this video was short he was recruited by the Organisation."

"Did she know?"

"She knew something had changed about him, but she did not know until late one night he came back with a shot wound and she found a gun in his pocket. She nursed him and she accidently read a text message intended for him from the Organisation. That is when she found out," Hakuba said. "After that that he would not let her leave the house to see her friends or go anywhere and with a cocktail of drugs he broke her down mentally."

"Poor girl," Kaito sympathised.

Now he didn't really mind Aoko's attitude- he couldn't blame her. To be betrayed like that by someone that you loved and kept a prisoner in your own home without any human contact aside from your criminal boyfriend was despicable. It was no wonder that she seemed reluctant to make a connection with anyone.

"How did you come across her?"

"One day, after a particularly bad argument with her boyfriend who hit her, she tried to commit suicide by throwing herself off the balcony when he left the apartment. She was stopped just in time by a neighbour and was taken to the hospital as her head was bleeding from where she had been hit earlier," Hakuba explained. "The doctor that examined her deduced that she had been a victim of domestic violence and reported it to the Police."

"What happened then?"

"The Police went to the apartment to arrest Gin; instead they found the apartment completely empty of anything. The case was given to my branch and that is why she is here with us now."

"For protection?" Kaito guessed.

"We have surmised from that fact that she is still alive despite knowing about the Organisation that Gin was keeping her knowledge a secret or that they were relying on the drugs to affect her memory. The Organisation does not like to have any witnesses capable of making testimonies against them."

Recalling the unknown fate of Ran Mori and his own experience with the Organisation, Kaito shuddered, suddenly cold despite the heating in the room. Aoko was lucky to be still alive, but as a consequence of her past and experience she was no longer all there mentally.

"Is there any chance that she will be able to return to her normal self?" he asked hesitantly, almost afraid of the answer.

Hakuba shrugged. "She has undergone therapy with some success; she was able to tell us what happened to her quite well. But it was eventually decided that the past should not be dredged up anymore once she had explained her circumstances and that her future is what matters now. There is a chance that she will be able to recover in different and peaceful surroundings and you..." he nodded pointedly at Kaito was mystified.

"Me?" He hadn't thought that he had or would be able to make a connection with her since she had closed herself off from any human contact."

"Yes, she is slightly different to how she was when I first met her last month," he smirked at Kaito's sceptical face. "When you were sleeping earlier she looked over at you and flushed slightly."

As if in return Kaito flushed red too. It seemed like Aoko didn't mind him as much as he thought she did. He had made some progress with her already without even realising it.

"What is Gin doing now? Do you know?"

"Quite well. Apparently he is after a young female scientist who works in the Organisation," Hakuba informed Kaito, well aware that he was giving out highly sensitive information.

"So he is over Nakamori-san?"

There was a sound of running feet outside the door which made Kaito jump in his seat. Aoko must have not been really asleep and had been listening outside the door the entire time and had heard everything.

Hakuba nodded to himself. "I knew it."

"She was outside the door all along?" Kaito gasped. "And you didn't give me any sort of hint. I wouldn't have said some of the things that I said if I had known she was there."

Hakuba shrugged uncaringly. "I wanted to hear her reaction. Judging from it I think she should be able to make some sort of recovery now that she knows that Gin has no interest in her anymore. Besides she was smart enough to know you were up to something and follow you. Yes, there is hope. Now the question is, are you capable of making a recovery?"

He stood up, locked the file back in the cupboard and turned out the light, leaving Kaito alone in the dark to think about his own past which was what gave him horrific nightmares and restless sleep. His father's death, his discovery of his father's criminal alter ego, the night he became Kaito Kid to lure Them out, the ensuing shootout and his mother being burnt alive when his house was set alight her screams defeated by the roaring flames whilst he was forced to watch, unable to help her.

His experience, like Aoko's had left him with some physical, but mostly mental scars that he never thought he would be able to recover from.

He told himself that if Aoko- the human equivalent of a brick wall, was capable of making a recovery, then he definitely was. He would explain his story to her after they had landed, then they could both get on with it, trying to lead a normal life. The only trouble was that they still had the Organisation on their tails.

For the first time in 6 months Kaito slept 7 hours of unbroken sleep with his head resting on the hard table. He only had one dream, a happy dream of a memory that he had of meeting a little girl when he was younger under a clock tower. He had felt sorry for her and had conjured up a rose to put a smile on her face. The girl reminded him a little of Aoko who had shown some emotion when he had given her a rose. Maybe he could entertain her sometime with some of his old magic tricks.

Kaito was awoken sharply by someone shaking him. Cracking open a heavy eyelid he found Aoko standing over him holding a steaming china teacup.

"Would you like some tea, Kuroba-san?"

Kaito blinked in surprise, sat up realising that as a result of his awkward sleeping position he had a crick in his neck. He accepted the offered teacup and looked around him. The office like room was now light, he guessed that they were quite close to their destination as the sun was now shining. He sipped the tea thoughtfully, noting that the natural light emphasised the brown highlights in Aoko's dark hair.

"You don't need to be so formal with me, you can call me Kaito," he suggested on the spur of the moment. "After all I'm your husband, but when we're in public you will have to call me Shinichi. Or to simplify matters you could just call me "dear"."

A strange look appeared on Aoko's face. It looked as if she wanted to laugh, but couldn't remember how to. She settled for a small smile.

"If I must, Kaito."

"I do insist, Aoko."


	4. Baka

**A New Beginning?**

**Chapter 4**

It was in the afternoon of a perfect summer's day when they landed in England after refuelling in Paris. The sun was shining down from a light blue sky that was clear of clouds and unlike back in Japan the temperature and humidity were mild and bearable.

Once they had arrived at Hakuba's stately manor house and deposited their luggage in the spacious entry hall, he insisted on giving them a tour despite the fact that they were all still quite tired from the flight and their jet lag would be keeping them up all night. Jet lag and lack of sleep didn't seem to have any effect on the detective; in fact he seemed more energetic that he had been on the plane. He led them around a dizzying array of room, making explanatory comments as he did so:

"This is the old Smoking Room; of course it isn't used anymore. This is the Billiards Room- I had in converted into a Games Room."

"Did you inherit this place?" Kaito enquired interestedly as they sat down outside on the terrace to admire the rose garden and eat a snack.

"My father bought it off the National Trust- the organisation that owns most of the stately homes in this country, for an extortionate price in return for my services to the Japanese Police. I don't get paid you see," Hakuba explained as he set the tea ray down on the wrought iron table.

Kaito perked up at the sight of cake and then was disillusioned by the sight of a non-chocolate cake, Aoko, on the other hand was uninterested in the conversation was intently watching a cat chasing a bird through the rose bushes.

Hakuba caught Kaito's disappointed look. "Sorry Kuroba, I do not eat chocolate cake; it is one of the most fattening cakes. This is a British Victoria Sponge. Have 5 sugars in your tea to make up for the loss of chocolate."

"How did you know that I like chocolate cake?" Kaito grumbled, piling the contents on the sugar bowl into his teacup.

"Your file."

Kaito pouted. "I swear I'm going to get my hands on it and see that it actually says in there."

Aoko giggled suddenly making the two males jump. Kaito turned and followed her gaze to see that the cat that she had been watching had climbed a tree only to become stuck by its collar catching on a branch. He didn't find it particularly interesting to look at, but it was the fact that she had found it funny piqued his interest.

"Is that your cat?" she asked, turning around in her seat as Hakuba deposited a slice of cake onto her plate.

"No," Hakuba shook his head. "It belongs to the little boy who is staying with me. I have a hawk called Watson though."

Kaito stifled a laugh at hearing the name and dug into his cake to avoid seeing Hakuba's glares. That cake wasn't that bad: the combination of a vanilla sponge, cream and strawberry jam was a pleasant change to chocolate cake which was what he had eaten to keep him awake when he had pulled all nighters to research the Organisation.

"Who is the boy?" Kaito asked after a few minutes of nothing but the sound of birds twittering and the clink of china.

Hakuba looked uncomfortable and unwilling to talk all of a sudden.

"You will meet him later at dinner. He is Japanese like you," he said firmly. "Aoko-chan, if you want you can have a cat in your new house." He swiftly changed the subject.

Aoko brightened a little and once again Kaito was reminded of the girl he had met under the clock tower. He caught Hakuba's eye and realised that he had been staring at Aoko with a goofy grin on his face. He sat up straighter and coughed. Hakuba smirked in amusement; he was going to have some fun messing with Kaito Kuroba.

Opening his old pocket watch that had been passed down through his family he checked the time.

"2 seconds, 3 minutes past 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Why don't you two unpack in your bedroom until dinner which is at exactly half past 6. Don't bother unpacking too much- you will be moving to your cottage tomorrow."

Kaito wasn't sure that he had heard right. "Did you say bedroom? Or bedrooms?"

Hakuba smiled at him innocently. "You will have to get used to it- after all you are husband and wife," he smirked. "Think of tonight as a test run."

Kaito blushed a tomato red and noted out of the corner of his eye that Aoko's cheeks were pink too an she was looking down at her teacup. Making a quick decision he stood up and grabbed her hand.

"Come on Aoko. Let's go and bounce on the bed and have a pillow fight," he suggested, pulling her gently with him into the house.

Rolling his eyes, Hakuba collected the teacups and plates. That bed was an antique. He knew that Kaito just wanted to make Aoko a little happier, but he should think things logically before diving in. If he over did his cheerfulness then he was going to scare Aoko away as she was still very shy.

Also he was aware that the pair had probably crossed paths before as they had spent their in the same district and Aoko's father, Inspector Nakamori had been the head of the Task Force against Kaito's father, Kaito kid. So the chances of them having crossed paths before were quite high.

It would be interesting to see how things developed once they had started properly living together. It was clear that Aoko Nakamori liked Kaito Kuroba much more than she had liked anyone in the past few months and that Kuroba himself was not opposed to her as much as he wanted him to think. He would have to visit them in their new house regularly to observe their progress.

As he was thinking his plans over a pillow fell down and hit him squarely on the head. With a certain suspicion as to where it came from he raised his head to look up. Kaito's head was sticking out of the window above him.

"Sorry Hakuba," Kaito apologised, not looking particularly sincere. "I have a very bad aim. Right, Aoko?"

He didn't hear reply, but he wondered what Kaito would be like at night when he had to sleep in the same bed as Aoko. He would love to see the cocky grin wiped off his face then. It was a shame he would not be able to see it.

An hour later Kaito and Aoko arrived downstairs in the dining room for dinner. Kaito looked very exhausted and tired with some stray feathers still in his hair and Aoko actually had some colour in her pale cheeks.

Hakuba took in all of the details and absorbed them carefully, exchanging glances with the 7 year old boy sitting opposite him. If Kuroba planned to keep up the hyper idiotic facade for Aoko then he would have to tone it down otherwise he would be drain his energy and he might have to deal with agents that the Organisation sent after him. However he did acknowledge that Aoko did look a little more like the happier photos he had seen of her from her schooldays.

"Kuroba, Aoko-chan," he started as they took their designated places that had been set out for them using name cards at the polished oak table. "This is the little boy I mentioned earlier; Conan Edogawa."

In response Kaito nodded his head and observed the boy's appearance. He was somewhat unusually attired for his young age- he was wearing a navy blue suit jacket and a red bowtie. He wore large black rimmed glasses over his piercing blue eyes. The boy smiled sweetly at Kaito.

"Nice to meet you, Kuroba-san."

There was something familiar about the boy that Kaito couldn't put his finger on. For some reason he found himself thinking of the very person he was going to be impersonating: Shinichi Kudo.

"How old are you?" Kaito asked bluntly, whilst looking as closely as he could from across the table at the glasses the boy was wearing. They were bothering him as well as the resemblance.

"Kuroba, he is 7. Leave him alone and eat," Hakuba sighed. He had not expected him to become suspicious of Conan Edogawa so quickly. Hopefully he would not guess the exact truth. He exchanged a significant look with Conan to warn him to be careful.

Taking Hakuba's advice, Kaito backed off and started eating.

After dinner they migrated to the Games room. Kaito entered a of Poker against Hakuba as he was incapable of playing Snooker and Aoko played Snap against Conan and talked to him about his cat.

"So what is your cat's name?" she asked subduedly as she was quite tired out from Kaito earlier.

Conan twitched. "It's called Baka."

In reality he had called it Ran Mori to remind himself of his wife, but if he told her the name it would only heighten Kuroba's suspicion which was the last thing he needed at the moment.

"That's a nice name," Aoko commented politely, laying a card down. "Are you a relation of Hakuba-san?"

With his blonde hair and my black hair? I don't think so, Conan thought in his head. Then he remembered that Aoko's intelligence had depleted since her ordeal and she probably wouldn't be able to regain most of it. At least she still retained her ability to speak foreign languages.

"No, my parents are friends with him," he lied, keeping to his cover story.

"Oh. I thought you reminded me of someone… If it wasn't Hakuba-san, who was it?" Aoko pondered out loud.

She failed to notice Hakuba and Conan suddenly tensing, but Kaito didn't and he waited for Aoko to join the dots together about who he resembled so he could observe their reactions. Fortunately he didn't have to wait long.

"I've got it; you look a little like Shinichi Kudo."

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you 66ButterflyOfDarkness99 for you regular reviews and in answer to your comment about Gin I only used him because I couldn't use Hakuba and according to Gin fans, he is attractive.<strong>


	5. Secrets and Lies

**A New Beginning?**

**Chapter 5**

Their reactions were identical and immediate. There was only one way to describe the expressions on their faces: rabbit caught in the headlights. Then a smile spread over Conan's face that didn't quite mask the apprehension in his eyes.

"That's right. He's my second cousin," Conan embellished on the spot.

Aoko smiled slightly. "So that's why you two look so alike."

Both games resumed play and the atmosphere turned back to normal, but Kaito wasn't satisfied with the answer as it did not account for the look in Conan's eyes.

However he soon forgot his suspicions when he and Aoko went back upstairs to go to bed. The atmosphere between them had been quite relaxed with them playing trampoline games like Crack the Egg on the ancient four poster bed, but now it was quite awkward with lots of tension.

"I'm going in the shower," Aoko said quietly as she picked up her pyjamas and headed towards the ensuite bathroom.

Kaito nodded and as soon as the door closed behind her he threw himself down on the bed. He had probably scared her off with his act that day and when he had dragged her off upstairs she had probably gotten the wrong idea. He would have to work out a new technique the next day for making her happier.

In the shower Aoko was wondering about Kaito Kuroba as she washed her hair. She liked him and appreciated his unsubtle attempts to cheer her up which were as clear as day, but she wasn't sure how much she liked him. She didn't want to commit to pleasing a person like she had been for the past 3 years. Her attraction for him had faded a little while after they had moved in together and she had seen his true personality, but since he had kept her a prisoner she hadn't been able to leave him.

In order to keep people away from her once she had left the hospital and was under Police protection she had tried to maintain a cold facade to stop herself from being hurt by a person she trusted. She had a feeling that Hakuba could see straight through her act and pitied her for it.

She rinsed the shampoo out of her hair and turned off the shower. Aoko sat on the edge of the bathtub for a while after, wondering how she was going to deal with sharing the same bed as Kaito Kuroba. She wanted to know his story as well. He had evidently been hurt by his past and the Organisation too.

A short while later she emerged from the bathroom smelling fresh and in her pyjamas. Kaito blushed at the sight if her in bright pink Hello Kitty pyjamas with a flushed face from all the steam in the bathroom.

Kaito grabbed his towel and ran into the bathroom to hide his face. Aoko started after him in puzzlement. Once inside the bathroom Kaito it dawned fully on Kaito how awkward it was going to be to share a bed with someone she as starting to develop feelings for. He consoled himself by telling himself that they were just protective feelings that a brother would have for his sister.

When he left the bathroom after a shower he found Aoko sitting up on the left side of the bed with a pillow propped up behind her back.

"Is the right side okay with you?" she asked with a yawn.

"Uh- yeah," Kaito mumbled as he got into bed.

"Is it okay if I turn out the light on my side?"

"Uh-yeah."

Lucky her, obviously she isn't embarrassed about sharing a bed with me as much as I am about sharing one with her, Kaito thought to himself.

Aoko switched off the lamp on the bedside table next to her and Kaito followed suit. The room was plunged into an inky blackness as Aoko moved her pillow and laid down. There was a strange squeaking noise as she did so.

"Kaito?"

"Yes?"

"I think we broke the bed earlier. It shouldn't be making noises like that."

Kaito smiled at her observation. He had known that some damage to the bed would have been sustained after they had used it as a trampoline. He had broken quite a few beds in his childhood doing the aforementioned activity. He had done it deliberately to get Hakuba back for upsetting Aoko.

"We can tell Hakuba in the morning that he needs to get a new one," Kaito yawned tiredly, as he snuggled up in the cover to get comfortable.

"Okay."

5 minutes later Aoko cleared her throat, rousing Kaito from his state of relaxedness which he had been enjoying as it kept his mind off having Aoko next to him. He had been close to actually getting some sleep.

"Kaito, I'm sorry that I'm unfriendly at times. I'm just afraid of people now."

He was wide awake now. An apology was the last thing that he had expected to hear from her. However, he understood her reasons for being cold and aloof quite well. If you covered your heart with ice to keep people away from hurting you it often unintentionally turned you into a cold person. She was only keeping people away so she didn't get hurt again. His hands clenched into fists when he thought about what Gin had done to her.

He rolled over to face her even though he could only just make out her outline.

"It's all right Aoko, I understand. I've completely changed from what I was like a few years ago."

Aoko took the opportunity to ask what she had been longing to ask all day. "What happened?"

The only reaction at the question from Kaito was a tensing of his body.

"Have you ever heard of the Kaito Kid?" he started, knowing that she probably had.

"Yes. My father was the head of the Police Task Force against him."

After hearing her answer Kaito felt like slapping himself. He should have realised it straight after he had met her and heard her surname. Nakamori. That meant that there was a high probability that she was the girl he had met under the clock tower all those years ago. That explained why she seemed vaguely familiar.

"Yes, he was," Kaito confirmed excitedly. "And Kaito Kid was actually my father Toichi Kuroba, the famous magician."

"Really?" She hadn't been expecting to hear that.

"When I was 17 I found out everything about it by accident," Kaito said, thinking back to when he fell into his father's secret lair. "I knew there was something suspicious about his death as he had left some clues behind so I started investigating it. After I left school it became an obsession. Then one day I came up with a simple idea that would draw them out."

"What was it?" Aoko asked, struck by the sudden edge to his voice.

"I dressed up as Kaito Kid and robbed a museum after giving out a coded notice to the newspapers, knowing that they would turn up to finish the job that they thought they had finished over 10 years ago. I was right."

Images from the past began to flash into his mind. The chocolate stained floor plans for the museum that he had planned to rob. When he put the Kaito Kid costume on for the first time. Running from the Police with the jewel in his hand with adrenalin flowing. Thinking he had outrun the Police only to find that Organisation lying in wait. They were the images that haunted his dreams and ones he would prefer to forget and leave behind. Hopefully this would be the last time that he would be dredging them up.

"They shot at me and I crash landed unconscious in an alleyway in the pouring rain."

The last thing he remembered was falling down as his hang glider was destroyed and rebounding off a fortuitously placed rubbish bin and thumping down onto the wet ground before passing out.

"When I woke up I was still in the alleyway, but I had been stripped of my mask and monocle and I was surrounded by people in black."

They had stared at him unforgivingly as he realised that he had been stripped of his disguise, his only defence against them finding out who he really was. He had been so panicked that he didn't feel the pain from his fall or notice the blood mixed with rain that was dripping down the side of his face.

"As it turned out they recognised me as being Kaito Kuroba immediately; I hadn't covered my tracks well enough when I had been investigating them. They took the jewel from me and were about to shoot me…"

He neglected to mention that they had beaten him and had threatened to kill his only family member he had left; his mother, in order to make him relinquish his grasp on the jewel. He also deliberately didn't mention that Gin had been there as he didn't want to upset Aoko.

Suddenly he felt a cool hand squeeze his shaking hand under the covers.

"Thank you Aoko," he said softly, touched by her action.

"What happened next?"

"I dropped a smoke bomb that I had concealed up my sleeve once they had relaxed their guard when they were about to kill me. I ran from the alleyway in the lashing rain to the house that I shared with my mother. When I eventually got there…" his voice wavered as he began to tremble at the memory.

Aoko squeezed his hand comfortingly again which gave Kaito the strength that he needed to finish his story.

"…When I arrived the house was on fire and my mother was trapped and being burned alive. The Organisation had got there ahead of me and had made good on their threats. I still hear her screams in my sleep."

"That's …awful." Aoko couldn't find the right adjective that was powerful enough to describe what had happened to him. It was no wonder that he had such a sad look in his eyes when he thought she wasn't looking. His experience with the Organisation put hers on a much lower level of atrocity. "And I thought what happened to me was bad."

Kaito grasped her cold hand in between his hands and stared at where he thought her eyes were.

"You're wrong. My torture was swift and over with quickly unlike yours which was protracted and drawn out."

Aoko opened her mouth to argue, but Kaito beat her to it. "For the sake of the argument we both had an equally bad experience and we are both going to put it behind us to try and start again."

Deliberately he neglected to mention that the Organisation were very likely to turn up as they were going to believe that he was Shinichi Kudo. It would cause needless worry if he reminded Aoko of that and she would go back to her normal paranoid self even though he had made some progress with her.

The only trouble with that idea was that Aoko was still very aware of the situation with the Organisation which had been plaguing her since Hakuba had told them on the plane.

* * *

><p><strong>Due to all my summer exams which start in less than a month I won't be able to update for a few months as I should be busy revising. <strong>


	6. Revenge?

**A New Beginning?**

**Chapter 6:**

**1 month later**

Tokyo

"Gin, you have let me down a few times recently, haven't you?"

The raspy voice seemed to echo through the speaker of the phone that the man in question was holding. He had been dreading hearing those words since he girlfriend had attempted to commit suicide and he been taken in by the Police.

"First Aoko Nakamori, Kaito Kuroba and now Sherry," Anokata's voice disguised by a scrambler continued on.

"It won't happen again," he replied, clamping an unlit cigarette between his teeth to help him hide his anger at himself.

"You said that last time and the time before that. If you mess up the assignment I'm about to give you, you will be forced to leave the Organisation and we all know that no one leaves alive."

"What's the job?" Anokata hadn't said anything that he hadn't predicted yet.

"I've sent you a file. It involves some of your past acquaintances. Don't mess this one up, it is your last chance."

Anokata rang off leaving Gin listening to the shrill sound of the dial tone.

He gripped the phone tightly in his hand. He had been quickly promoted through the ranks of the Organisation soon after he had joined and shown immediate potential for a perfect, cold blooded agent who carried out order to the letter without letting any emotions get in the way. Or had been until the Anokata had found out that he had a girlfriend that knew everything after her suicide attempt and to make matters worse before the Organisation could retrieve her she had been whisked away by the Police as a witness who could testify against the Organisation. Then he had failed with Kaito Kuroba, spending too much time torturing him instead of killing him like he was supposed to allowing him to get away and run to the Police for protection.

After that day he had known that his days until a serious talk with Anokata were numbered and getting shorter.

Then the final straw had been the escape of Shiho Miyano aka Sherry, the gifted scientist he had been assigned to keep an eye one. Her escape had taken place two days ago and seemed impossible as she had been locked in a room with only one exit which had been locked. In addition to his mountain of problems it turned out that the corpse Shinichi Kudo, the detective he had killed, had never been found. He had argued that the APTX 4869 had sped up decomposition rate, but no one in the science department would believe him and neither did Anokata.

To say the least he was in an awkward situation with his superiors and only had one chance left until he was given a traitor's death as a warning to any other members that messed up. Ironically he had carried one out the week before all his problems had started. The agent had been elderly and his mind had been going senile and he had been classed as a liability so Gin had killed him.

Gin looked up as his partner entered the room holding a thick file.

"The file just arrived, Aniki," Vodka announced, dropping it onto the table.

In reply Gin grunted and slid it towards him. "Close the curtains. The sunlight is giving me a headache."

Behind him the curtains were whisked shut and a pair of arms looped around his neck and the voice of the woman that he hated the most whispered in his ear

"I can soothe that headache."

His only reaction to the sudden change in attitude and voice was to remove the arms from his neck and say, "Don't you have better things to do Vermouth? And take that awful mask off."

Vodka's face pouted and was ripped off to reveal Vermouth's face.

"You're on your last chance," she said brightly, sitting herself down in the chair opposite him. "You will love the assignment."

Raising an eyebrow he opened the file and blinked in surprise. A photo of Shinichi Kudo's face was staring up at him along with one of Kaito Kuroba's. He had never put those two together and realised that they almost looked the same. He would have forgotten their faces, but since they were his failures they were permanently in his head, reminding him that he had failed.

"Turn to page 2. It gets better."

Gin uttered a curse when he found another collection of images, this time of his ex-girlfriend and Shinichi Kudo's wife. He had never spotted any resemblance between them either, but he spent a lot of time trying to forget Aoko's face.

"Two people matching descriptions of Shinichi Kudo/ Kaito Kuroba and Ran Mori/ Aoko Nakamori have been spotted in England by the agent that observes Saguru Hakuba. As you can see we don't actually know which people they are due the resemblance."

"I see."

Vermouth leaned forward and lit up the unlit cigarette which was still hanging out of his mouth.

"Yes, anyway the pair moved into a house in the village where he lives a few weeks ago. We are of the opinion that they are acting as bait to lure us into a trap as all four of them are wanted by the Organisation."

"So we are going to enter it anyway?"

"With precautions. There is also another factor which needs to be taken into account," Vermouth tapped the file with a manicured fingernail.

In compliance he turned a few more pages until he found yet another photo.

"Sherry," he breathed.

"Isn't it a tantalising last chance, Gin? All your failures rolled into one assignment- your chance to get even with those who have evaded you."

Gin ignored her, knowing she knew that that was exactly what was going through his mind. He kept his eyes down, fixed to the text on the page in front of him. According to it Sherry had been showing interest in the case of Shinichi Kudo before her escape 2 days ago and had been aware of the sighting in England, leading the belief that she had fled to that country.

"Interesting…"

* * *

><p><span>England<span>

Aoko hummed happily to herself as she skipped around the house with a bright yellow feather duster. It was her third week of living in England with Kaito and she had nearly forgotten about the Organisation and was enjoying herself. She paused in her dusting of the windowsill in the front room to glance out the window to gauge the weather.

"It's raining, again…" she complained out loud to herself. "It's supposed to be summer."

A loud yawn came from behind her. "It was sunny every day last week, you can't complain and you got a suntan and I got a sunburn," Kaito yawned and ruffled up is already messed up hair.

"Kaito. Good morning, it's rare for you to actually get up before noon," Aoko turned and smiled radiantly at him.

Kaito flushed at the sight of her smile which he still had not become accustomed to seeing.

"Your humming and skipping kind of woke me up."

Aoko's face fell. "Sorry."

He hurried to placate her. "It's okay, I was already awake and it was a nice song."

"That's good. Anyway I was just going to make some coffee. Would you like a cup?"

Kaito nodded and Aoko left the room, still holding the feather duster. He smiled to himself and sat down on the sofa. Living with Aoko was not what he had expected at all. Instead of moping around the house, not eating properly and looking depressed she had thrown herself into the housework, gained a tan which made her look healthier and smiled at him frequently which had been a little unnerving at first. She had experimented with cakes and desserts and had put on a few pounds- in her case it was a good thing. He enjoyed having a person like her around the house. Although he wondered if she was really as happy as she seemed to be or if she hadn't forgotten the Organisation and was putting on an act.

Something hot touched his cheek suddenly, causing him to jump in his seat. Aoko was standing beside him holding out a cup to him. He had been so intent on thinking about her that he hadn't noticed her enter the room. He would have to work on that. Before he had been very sensitive in his surrounding and reacted at every little noise. He accepted the cup from her with a small smile. Aoko sat down next to him.

"Hakuba-san phoned earlier to say that he is coming around with a guest this evening," she said after a short silence with just the sound of them slurping coffee.

"Hmph. I suppose that means he's inviting himself around for dinner. Did he say who the guest was?"

Aoko shook her head. "I assumed it was Conan-kun, but I'm not sure now. What would you like for dinner? We haven't tried anything with fish in yet."

Kaito squirmed and pulled a repulsed face at the mention of the word "fish".

Aoko giggled, "I'm only joking Kaito. It said you had Ichthyophobia in your file. I just wanted to see your face." She winked.

He turned his head to hide his flushed red face. She couldn't be faking all of that, could she? That Aoko that he had met a month ago would have never winked at him. She had definitely changed, but for how long? They couldn't hide from the Organisation forever.

* * *

><p><strong> I'm back from exam hell and have nearly finished school forever. I just have attend Prom. <strong>

**I haven't written anything creative in a long time (English exams do not have creative writing questions) so I am a little out of practise. The updates, if anyone is still reading this, should be more regular now**


	7. Burnt Chicken

**A New Beginning?**

******Chapter 7**

Saguru Hakuba promptly arrived at the agreed time of 6 o'clock with his predicted guest, Conan and an unexpected one. She was a girl with short light reddish brown hair that looked to be the same age as Conan and also looked like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards as her face was deathly pale, there were a few scratches on her neck and her eyes were rimmed black from lack of sleep. Her bedraggled appearance instantly reminded Kaito of when he met Aoko a month ago. He could guess the reason for the haunted appearance of the girl from that memory. It would also explain why she was with Hakuba. She was hiding from the Organisation.

The three of them stood in the entry way dripping rain looking like the world's strangest family: a beaming blonde English detective, a small smiling Japanese boy and a scowling half Japanese girl.

"I'm sorry for the unexpected guest Aoko-chan," Hakuba apologised. "It was just going to be Conan-kun and I, but she… turned up unexpectedly. She's a distant relation."

Ignoring the stony look the girl was giving her Aoko bent down and smiled at her. "Hello. What's your name?"

"Ai Haibara," she said quietly.

"That's a pretty name," Aoko straightened up and sniffed the air. "I think I'd better return to the kitchen. Something is burning."

She dashed out the room, leaving Kaito to lead the guests into the dining room and entertain them. Kaito had something planned to confirm his suspicions about Conan Edogawa.

"Kuroba," Hakuba began. "I need to tell you-"

Kaito cut him off hurriedly, afraid he was going to make him pay for the bed that he broke. "Dinner will be ready soon so I'll entertain you with some of my magic tricks in the meantime."

Hakuba closed his mouth. He had been about to tell him something that he couldn't say in front of Aoko and pertained to forthcoming events that had moved in an unpredicted directions and were going to happen sooner than expected.

Kaito leaned over Conan. "Can I borrow your glasses for a magic trick?" He had a plan to find out who Conan really was and he thought the key was in removing the glasses. It was obvious that the glasses were fake as they didn't magnify his eyes or reflect light in the same way as a real pair of glasses did.

Conan's eyes widened momentarily. He decided it would be more suspicious if he refused to take them off so he reluctantly handed them over. Kaito laid them carefully on the table, then seemed to remember something and drew out a small digital camera from his pocket.

"Aoko wanted a photo of you- she said you were cute," he said snapping a photo quickly before Conan could even blink or hide his face.

* * *

><p>In the kitchen Aoko rescued the chicken which had been singed in the oven and tried to work out how she was going to cover it up. Her cooking and cleaning ministrations distracted her from her underlying agitated thoughts about Gin and the Organisation, or they normally did, but tonight they were bubbling at the front of her mind. She had a niggling feeling that Hakuba was going to drop a bombshell on them and the girl he had brought with him gave off a distinct aura of evil that she had always got from her ex-boyfriend.<p>

She had a bad feeling about tonight. Her hand shook as she dished out the vegetables onto the plates.

When she entered the dining room balancing the plates on her arms she found Ai Haibara glaring at the wall and Conan and Hakuba deep in a quiet and serious looking conversation. Hakuba broke off her conversation before she could get close enough to hear anything.

"Where's Kaito?" she asked, laying the plates down on the table. "Please start before it gets cold."

"He said he was going to the toilet, but he had been gone far too long and I distinctly heard him go upstairs," Hakuba shrugged, with a strange look in his eyes. "Aoko-san, whatever happens next, please promise me that you will trust me."

Aoko replied after a few seconds, "Of course." Then she left the room to find Kaito.

In his bedroom Kaito was running a facial recognition on the photo he had taken of Conan and comparing the features to ones he had downloaded off the internet of Shinichi Kudo. He had even found a childhood photo of him which looked identical to Conan. The results had been an exact match. Now he was working out how to confront Hakuba and Conan Edogawa/Shinichi Kudo without Aoko finding out.

He turned round after hearing the creak of a floorboard behind him, to find Aoko standing behind him.

"What are you doing Kaito? Your dinner is getting cold."

"Nothing interesting," he answered quickly, getting up to follow her downstairs whilst snagging a printout on the way.

Throughout the meal Kaito kept glancing at Conan to check that he really was right about a 19 year old shrinking to the size of a child whilst Hakuba kept stealing looks at Aoko for signs of a positive change. When everyone had finished Aoko cleared up the plates and announced she was going to do the washing up and that she didn't require anyone's help.

As soon as she left the room Kaito spoke to Conan to ask, "How did you do it?"

Conan and Hakuba exchanged significant looks, knowing exactly what he was talking about.

"What do you mean?"

In response Kaito pulled out a printout of the photo he had taken earlier of Conan and a child hood photo of Shinichi Kudo.

"I'm talking about this, Kudo."

Ai yawned tiredly and re-crossed her arms. Hakuba glared at her before turning to Conan.

"Considering what I'm going to say after this you might as well come clean Kudo-kun."

"Conan" took off his glasses.

"You're right, I am Shinichi Kudo. The Organisation caught up with me one night and forced an experimental drug on me to kill me. Instead of killing me it shrank my body down to the size of a child."

Kaito leaned back in his chair thoughtfully. "I wouldn't normally think that was possible for that to actually happen, but since the evidence is right in front of me, I believe you."

Shinichi nodded. "I still haven't got my head around it. Luckily I was able to get in contact with Hakuba-kun and I've been staying with him ever since."

"I hope you two don't mind stopping your chit-chat. I need to tell Kuroba something before Nakamori-san returns," Hakuba said urgently, throwing glances at the door. "I would be telling you this later and under different circumstances, but a new factor has complicated matters."

"What is it?"

"Gin had been assigned to your case, the one to kill both of you and he should be arriving in England tomorrow night," he leaned closer to Kaito. "We have an informer in the Organisation. We didn't expect Them to make a move so quickly, but-" he threw a glance at Haibara who stiffened. "Something, someone upset our plans."

Kaito caught the glance and took a closer look at the girl. She did look haunted and fearful, but she seemed to have a more mature air about her and although she hadn't opened her mouth much he could infer that she was intelligent from the analytical glances he had glimpsed her making all evening at people and surroundings. She gave the same impression that Conan did- someone who was trapped in the wrong body, but there was something different about her that separated her from Conan. An aura of menace, he decided.

"You're really an adult, aren't you?" Kaito voiced his thoughts out loud. "And… you're a member of the Organisation!" he worked out where he had sensed that aura before. The night his mother had been killed.

Ai Haibara looked at him straight in the eye, unflinchingly, unsurprised by his revelation. "Yes, I'm Sherry. I made that drug that shrank myself and Shinichi Kudo. I'm a scientist and I've upset their precious plans." She gestured to Hakuba and Conan who were scowling.

"Sherry… Wait a minute, aren't you the one that Gin dated after Aoko?"

He recalled Hakuba's words from the flight. _"__Apparently he is after a young female scientist who works in the Organisation." _The conversation that Aoko had overheard and got upset about. It was a god things that she was in the kitchen washing the dishes so there was no chance that she would overhear and get upset again.

Then it hit him like a lightning bolt striking him- Aoko never washed he dishes by hand, they had never brought any washing up liquid and she always used the dishwasher.

He realised that there was a high chance that Aoko had heard everything. The door opened and Aoko entered the room with a tearful face. Everyone in the room jumped apart from Kaito.

Aoko had definitely heard everything.


	8. Ice Cream and Sprinkles

**A New Beginning**

**Chapter 8**

Hakuba and Kaito stood up simultaneously.

"Nakamori-san, remember what I said to you about trusting me," Hakuba said calmly, walking slowly towards her.

As he moved closer Aoko stepped back.

"Shut up!" she screamed, "You've lied to me, everyone lies to me. I can't trust anyone. Get away from me." She backed out the room and they all heard her run out the front door.

Kaito turned to Hakuba. "Please don't tell me you were predicting this," he said sarcastically.

Hakuba ran an agitated hand through his hair, something which he never usually did. "No. Everything, all my plans have been messed up because of _her._"

Conan spoke up from his place at the table as Hakuba glared at Haibara who stared back. "Kuroba-kun, I think you should go after her- she trusts you and you haven't lied to her yet, have you?"

Kaito frowned remembering that he had lied to her half an hour ago, then ran out the house to find her. It had become darker and the streetlights were on making it harder for Kaito to spot prospective Aoko hiding places as they threw everything into shadow. He ran down the street frantically racking his brains for somewhere that Aoko would run to when she was upset. Somewhere peaceful and secluded… It came to him when he spotted the entrance out of the corner of his eye.

The park. They had visited it together on their second day in the village after walking around the streets and shops. Kaito and Aoko had settled on the swings to eat ice cream.

Flashback

_Kaito licked his double chocolate ice cream cone slowly and closed his eyes, savouring the taste. The ice cream shop had had lots of interesting flavours, he had been stuck between double chocolate or chocolate fudge whilst Aoko had chosen plain vanilla and stuck with it no matter what Kaito had said to persuade her to choose something more exciting._

"_Ah…" he sighed contentedly as he swung back and forth a little on the swing. "This is the life… Right Aoko?"_

_He turned his head to the side check Aoko's progress o her ice cream. She hadn't taken a bite or lick yet and was staring at it dubiously as if she was afraid that one touch would give her an ice cream headache. Kaito rolled his eyes, deciding he would have to do something to dispel that._

_He leaned in and took a bite of her ice cream before she could even jump._

"_Live a little Aoko," he urged swallowing his mouthful. "You can't go through life without enjoying delicious things. Even plain vanilla is delicious. You should try it."_

_Aoko shot a sceptical glance at him and then took a tiny bite then another. _

"_I'd forgotten how nice ice cream was," she said half to herself. "My favourite was always mint choc chip and I loved putting sprinkles on ice cream no matter the flavour."_

_Kaito smiled. He had forced down one of her barriers and he still had a lot to go, but it showed that progress could be made even if it was slow and only a little._

"_Would you like a bite of mine?" he held out his almost melting cone to her._

_Hesitantly she nodded and took a tiny bite._

"_That's nice. Thank you Kaito," she said and her mouth twitched like she wanted to smile._

"_Uh, you've got ice cream on your cheek."_

"_I don't have anything to wipe it off with. I'll just wait for it to melt," she shrugged, licking her ice cream._

_Kaito sighed. Back to square 1 which the blasé attitude, but at least she was enjoying her snack. He clicked his fingers and produced a white hand kerchief._

"_Here, let me wipe is off for you." He finished his cone off and carefully wiped the ice cream off her cheek, wondering when she was going to scream or shrink away._

_She didn't. She sat there calmly whilst he wiped her cheek and said "Thank you" when he had finished._

_Kaito grinned to himself and pushed himself on the swing so he could start swinging properly. Aoko Nakamori wasn't as boring as she initially appeared. She liked chocolate._

* * *

><p>Kaito's heart leapt when he spotted and dim figure sitting desolately on the swings, illuminated by the orange glow of the streetlights. He took a deep breath and walked slowly towards her making his footsteps loud to make sure that she knew he was there so he didn't frighten her. She looked up at him, but didn't run away as he sat down on the swing next to her. The night was silent apart from the blowing of the wind and the creaking of the swings.<p>

"Kaito," Aoko said quietly, breaking the awkward silence after a few minutes. "Why does everyone lie?"

"They just do. It's life unfortunately. Everyone is always out for themselves."

"I see."

Slowly Aoko turned her face away from Kaito and he noticed her body was shaking slightly. He reached out a hand, then drew it back on having second thoughts about touching her when she was obviously upset.

"Aoko, is there anything I can do?" he enquired, feeling useless.

In reply she turned to him and he saw the tears that had silently run down her face. "Even though throughout my life I have been kind and honest, people always take advantage of me and lie. After coming here I hoped I would be free of it, but-" she broke off suddenly before bursting into tears again.

Hastily Kaito stood up and put his arms around her, unable to leave her alone like that.

"Hakuba is a scumbag like your ex-boyfriend," he said to cheer her up. "Kudo-kun doesn't seem so bad. It's not really his fault that he's trapped in the body of a child. As for Sherry or whatever she's calling herself now…"

Aoko started sobbing again leaving Kaito to pat her head and rummage around with his free hand in his pocket for a tissue. He pulled out a crumpled one and wiped her eyes for her.

"I knew they were lying to me, the Police and Hakuba, but I went along with it as I hoped it would bring down the Organisation. Turns out their plans have been "upset"," she continued bitterly. "I really have no idea what to do now. Go along with it and get killed for nothing or break off now before it is too late…"

Kaito felt a pang in his heart, he understood her confusion completely. He had agreed to go along with it for the very same reasons and was feeling similarly lost now. He resumed his patting of her head.

"You know what we should do now?" Kaito brightened as he thought of an idea.

Aoko looked up at him with tears still flowing down her cheeks. "What?"

"We should tell them that we aren't going to go along with it anymore, disguise ourselves, get hold of some fake IDs and run away to a distant country where no one can find us. I should have done that from the start, but I was promised that with my help the Organisation would be brought down."

"That would be running away, but I don't want to be manipulated again so I agree that backing out now is our only option, but the trouble is that we need help from Hakuba to move otherwise They would get to us in a matter of seconds and he knows the most," Aoko pondered thoughtfully, nearly back to normal.

Kaito's eyes shifted. "I could blackmail him, but that is too low for me. Don't worry, I'll work it out."

In his mind he knew what he would do and was settled on it completely. He would talk to Hakuba and enter whatever crazy scheme he had now even if it got him killed as long as he got Aoko away from all of this. He would give up his life for Aoko's.

Finally he had realised that he liked her as more than a friend. It had taken him a whilst, but after her seeing her actually crying and showing real emotion it had dawned on him and provided a reason for all his blushes and flushes.

Also he welcomed that chance to get even with Gin after what he had done to Aoko.

But he knew that he would never tell Aoko his feelings as it would tie her to him and he would not be able to let her go.

He stood up awkwardly and pulled her up with him. "Let's go back now."

* * *

><p><strong>Hope everyone is having a nice summer wherever they are; I haven't seen the sun properly for a month and I probably won't see it for a while and all the rain is making me feel depressed which probably explains why the characters are getting emotional.<strong>


	9. Plans and Pink Hair

**A New Beginning?**

**Chapter 9**

It had been 21 minutes and 56 seconds since Kaito and dashed out of the front door after Aoko and the three of them were watching the clock, wondering if both of them would come back together or whether it would just be Kaito returning unsuccessfully having given up trying to find her.

Hakuba sighed, tearing his eyes from the clock. "This is all your fault Sherry. She was doing fine until this evening."

Haibara snorted. "That woman was a bunch of fraying nerves. She was obviously faking happiness- didn't you see her shaking hand or spot the nervous movements?" she retorted. "It was an accident waiting to happen."

Conan glared at her. He was slowly becoming exhausted by her snarky comments. "We both noticed it, but the plan of having her improve her physical and mental health by living with Kuroba-kun was optimistic in the outset and she had improved greater than expected."

Her only response was to scowl and look away. Shiho Miyano had not been expecting a warm welcome, but she had not been expecting this outright hostility either. She hypothesised that it may have been t her blackmailing of Hakuba so he would send his private plane to Japan so she could come to England.

"Do you think that they are going to want out of the plan?" Conan mused out loud whilst tapping his fingers on the table.

"Undoubtedly, but they cannot. It is too late," Hakuba replied sadly, upset that his plans of matching Kaito and Aoko had gone awry along with his main plan of trapping the Organisation. "I wonder if Kuroba will use this opportunity to confess…" he uttered under his breath.

He wanted them to be together as it was an ending that Shinichi Kudo and Ran Mori would never have again due to the Organisation and he didn't want a repeat of that with the two that resembled them.

"He won't and he probably will never tell her," Conan decided. "I know I missed lots of opportunities myself, but the time isn't right now."

Everyone in the room jumped when the front door was opened and Kaito and Aoko entered the room holding hands. Aoko's face was serene and relaxed as if a heavy load of worries had been lifted from her whilst Kaito was wearing his best poker face.

"Hakuba, we would like to leave the agreement we had with you We've gone along with everything you've said and nothing has come of it, even you admit that events have not gone as you planned," Kaito said levelling his line of sight with Hakuba's to show that he was completely serious.

Hakuba twitched a single eyebrow. He had been expecting it ever since Aoko had stormed out of the house and he had searched silently in his mind for a way to make it work in his favour.

"It can be arranged- for a price." He winked at Kaito who glared momentarily and nodded.

"I expected as much," he switched his attention to Aoko. "Aoko, I think you should go up to bed. This is going to take a while and it's getting late"

"I'll stay with her upstairs until you're ready," Conan offered, understanding why he wanted her out of hearing range and knowing that when left alone she had a habit of listening into conversations she wasn't intended to hear.

Kaito shot him a grateful look. "Aoko?"

As if on cue Aoko yawned tiredly and rubbed her eyes which were bloodshot with red from crying. "I am feeling tired. I'll see you later then," she said turning to leave the room. "Conan- I mean Kudo-kun, are you coming?"

Conan slid off his chair and followed her out of the room, closing the door behind him after shooting Hakuba a warning glance.

Haibara yawned. "So the brave Knight is going to sacrifice himself for the Princess, how tragic," she said snidely.

"Shut up Sherry. I don't have much patience left." Kaito clicked his fingers and Haibara's hair turned bright bubblegum pink. "That's for annoying me."

"Still childish in serious situations, Kuroba? Hakuba smirked, glad that someone else was getting annoyed with Sherry too, before turning serious again. "What will you give me in return for Nakamori-san's safe passage out of here?"

Kaito shook his head. "Before that I want to know everything that has been going on. I'm sick of not knowing anything."

He couldn't be left in the dark now, now that he needed to protect someone besides himself. Over the years he had learnt that ignorance about dangerous things is life threatening. He just wished that he had been able to sneak some of his favourite Sodium Pentothal past airport security for getting the truth out of bratty detectives.

"I suppose it would be better," Hakuba mused thoughtfully. "Firstly, there is, and had been for the past 6 months, a spy for the Organisation living in this village."

"What!" Kaito exclaimed. How could he just impart serious information like that so casually?

Hakuba shrugged casually, unconcerned. "He is just here to report my movements so I have not bothered about him and it is fine for Them to know I am at your house as They know we are planning something"

"What is your epic plan?" Kaito latched onto the last sentence.

"At the start I needed some prime bait to lure them in, you and Nakamori-san so we can capture some high ranking members in the very least."

"How are you going to go about that?" Kato asked sceptically, not believing what he was hearing.

"Have you ever noticed that there is only 1 hotel to stay in here and there is only 1 way in and out of this village?" the detective smiled, happy to explain the ingenuity of his plan.

"Come to think of it…"

"There is also no other town within 10 miles of this village," he nodded sagely. "This place is surrounded by the sea and grassland."

Kaito picked up the hints and threaded them together so he could construct Hakuba's plan. "You're going to trap Them here? Is that really going to work? I don't think they would fall for something that simple."

Haibara spoke up from the other end of the table causing Kaito to flinch and jump- he had been so intent on his conversation that he had forgotten that she was still there. "It's a simple plan and depending on the circumstances it may work."

A thought struck Kaito suddenly. "What about the ordinary people here? Are they just going to end up as collateral damage?"

"Most people here have been hired by me and are a mix of former police officers and members of my group. As for the few families which have no connection to me, I have arranged for them to take a month's holiday starting today."

The depth of the plan began to sink into Kaito's brain. The prim blonde was obviously completely serious about bringing Them down and had evidently spent a lot of money and resources on it hearing the truth now for Kaito portrayed Hakuba in a more favourable light. Before he had just believed that he was a conceited and stuck up detective with too much money.

"How long have you been planning this and how much have you spent on this?"

Hakuba calculated it for a second. Had it really been that long? "1 year and 2 months. I was not sure if I could do it alone, then Kudo-kun joined me 3 months ago and he formulated a back up plan which he refuses to tell me. As for the cost £3 000 585 exactly or at least as of today… I keep a running total."

Kaito whistled. The man was obviously rolling in money, yet he hadn't seen any signs of anyone else in his manor that did the chores like cleaning and washing clothes. He must do the cleaning himself to save money, Kaito thought wryly to himself, amused be the idea of the blonde wearing an pink filly apron and carrying a feather duster.

"I am only paying for 30% of it myself. The organisation I work for paid the rest," he added, afraid that Kaito would think that he only got where he was because of his wealth.

"I've been meaning to ask, I know I met a few people from it and visited their headquarters in Tokyo, but what do you work for and what arranged all this?" Kaito asked, perturbed by the mention of "Organisation" even though he knew Hakuba wasn't talking about The Organisation.

"You could say that the people that we are fighting against are the Black Organisation and we are the White Organisation that was created around the same time to eradicate them, but nothing has really been achieved yet."

"So this is a last ditch attempt then? And how has Sherry messed it up?" He recalled all the glares sent by Conan and Hakuba at the scientist.

Hakuba sighed deeply. "The plan was to slowly lure them in by adding to the bait, we were going to reveal who Conan was "accidently" to the village and this place would slowly fill up with Black Organisation spies, but the presence of Sherry has sped events up and we are not ready to face a large number of people yet so I am going to need your help, or more specifically I need the co operation of… Kaito Kid."

"…As long as you get Aoko out of here…"

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you to all the kind readers who have been reviewing this fanfiction like GothicAngel09 and the annonymous reviewers By the way it's still raining... <strong>


	10. Scars

**A New Beginning?**

**Chapter 10**

It was a little after midnight when Kaito trudged tiredly up the stairs after a long session of Kaito's winding explanations and snipes from Sherry. He and Hakuba had made an agreement and Aoko would be leaving in the morning for London whilst Kaito stayed behind to unearth the alter ego that he thought he had buried forever. He wasn't sure how Hakuba had gotten hold of a Kaito Kid costume though.

However Kaito still couldn't get rid of the impression and niggling feeling that he was being lied to. The plan seemed… amateurish for a detective of Hakuba's calibre. Sure, it was undeniable that any strangers in the village would be noticed and since the place was pretty isolated it was possible to surround it if you posted people in the surrounding fields and in the sea, but wouldn't that be the first thing that The Organisation would think of?

Sleepily he shook his head as he brushed his teeth. His fatigue was probably fuelling his paranoia problem; it would seem different after some sleep. He spat out the toothpaste and rinsed his mouth.

He poked his head around Aoko's bedroom door to find her and Conan sitting on the bed playing Chess with the curtains still open and only her bedside lamp for light. Kaito strolled in casually and checked the number of pieces of each colour. Surprisingly Aoko was winning, but the fact that they hadn't bothered to close the curtains suggested that they had been played a few games and had been intent enough on trying to beat each other that they had forgotten how late it was.

"Bishop to D6, Tantei-kun."

Conan looked up at him scornfully. "I've lost both bishops Kuroba-kun."

"I wasn't been serious. It's what Sherlock Holmes does in that new film with Moriarty, I thought you would appreciate the reference. Besides I'm supporting Aoko."

"You call that a Sherlock Holmes film? The main character just had the same name as him, it wasn't Holmes," Conan argued, distracted from the game now.

"Checkmate," Aoko said triumphantly after 2 more moves. "Thanks Kaito."

Conan glared momentarily at him. "Since you're here I had better leave now. Thank you for the games Nakamori-san. It was fun," he bowed and left the room.

"Wait a second Tantei-kun," Kaito shouted and ran after him. "Tell Sherry if she wants to turn her hair back to its original colour she should just use a different shampoo. I spiked all the shampoos for light coloured hair when I was staying there as I was hoping to get Hakuba."

Conan raised his eyebrows. "Uh-okay. I will tell her."

"What did you do to her?" Aoko asked when he returned to her bedroom to say goodnight like he usually did.

"Turned her hair pink."

She giggled happily and Kaito smiled indulgently, content with the fact that he had made her laugh.

"Good night Aoko." He turned to leave and felt her grab onto the bottom of his shirt. "Aoko?"

Guiltily she retracted her hand. "Sorry. It doesn't matter. Good night Kaito."

Kaito noted the tremor in her voice and made an instant decision. He caught her hand and held it gently, remembering that she had done the same for him.

"You're scared," he stated the fact plainly. "Would you like me to stay with you?"

Aoko bit her lip. She had had a feeling of unease ever since she had set eyes on Sherry that evening and those feelings had increase since she had learnt that Gin was coming for her. She knew, or hoped that Kaito wouldn't let that happen to her. For some unknown reason she trusted him to keep her safe.

She nodded in reply to his question, aware that her face was slowly flushing red. Kaito patted her head comfortingly.

"It's okay Aoko. I've made arrangements and you will be leaving here tomorrow and I will join you the next day after I pack up all our stuff here. So you won't see Gin or anyone else like that."

Joyfully Aoko threw her arms around him. "Yes! I knew you would do it."

Then she realised what she had unconsciously done and stepped away from him without looking at him, unaware that his face was the same bright red as hers.

"Shall we get to bed then?" she turned away and began cleaning the chess board away to hide her embarrassment. Kaito walked over to the window and shut the curtains to conceal his face too.

"I need to put my pyjamas on," Kaito informed her as casually as he could to hide his uncontrollable red face. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

He hastily left the room leaving Aoko standing there becoming even more embarrassed by her request. Then she grabbed her pyjamas, brushed the knots that she had accumulated out of her hair and was in the process of removing her foundation when Kaito returned in his blue and white striped pyjamas holding a book which he set down on the bedside table and got into bed on the right side of the bed. He was glad that they both had double beds as it would be even more awkward.

"You don't need to wear any make up Aoko, you're pretty enough already," Kaito complimented her unexpectedly as she pulled the bed covers back next to him.

A silent blush crept up her face. "Um-thanks Kaito, but I need to wear it to hide the scars on my face," she said sadly as she climbed into bed.

Upon hearing her answer Kaito remembered that he had never seen her face up close before apart from the last time they shared a bed which was nothing to go on as they had turned the lights off. This made him wonder even more what Gin had done to her during their "relationship" and her imprisonment.

"Can I have a look?" he asked softly.

She nodded and after a few seconds he took hold of her face with his hands and traced the lines of the thin scars that criss crossed her cheeks with his forefinger. They were barely noticeable and he only could see them clearly when he turned her face to the side so the bedside lamp shined directly on them. Idly he noted that she had soft skin which looked healthier than when he had met her in Tokyo and then he realised that he was touching parts of her face that weren't scarred.

"Did He do this?" he enquired, still holding her face.

"Yes," she answered quietly and his gaze was accidently drawn to her lips and he became aware that he had a sudden desire to kiss her. He dropped his hands from her face like he had just touched a hot branding iron.

"Why?" Kaito demanded angrily.

His anger took Aoko by surprise; no one that she had talked to before about it had reacted like that. Everyone else: the doctors and psychologists had just nodded and written it down. Kaito was the first person that had truly taken an interest in her.

"My father tried to intervene in our relationship after not hearing from me for a while and forced his way into the apartment to take me home and found evidence of The Organisation before he found me and was in the middle of calling for back up when Gin shot him from behind. He then took his frustration out on me," Aoko explained calmly, staring down at her hands. For some reason she always felt calmer when she was with Kaito.

"I'm going to kill him," Kaito muttered quietly before he could stop himself.

Her eyes widened and Kaito mentally slapped himself. She grabbed his arm and then stopped.

"I don't think I would mind if you killed him anymore," she pondered aloud at her change in feelings.

"I don't love him anymore- he isn't that the man that I fell in love with."

"Aoko…"

She burst out laughing, surprised to discover that she had been holding onto her feelings for the original person he was for all this time. It was only now that she was able to come to this conclusion and she knew it was became a much better and kinder person had taken his place. Kaito Kuroba.

She stopped laughing when she became aware that he was staring at her concernedly.

"Kaito… I think I've fallen in love with you."

At her words Kaito froze and Aoko continued on.

"You're funny, kind and I don't detest your presence and I don't mind you touching me. And you remind me of my first love, you even do the same magic trick. I met him under a clock tower whilst I was waiting for my father once, but I admit that I have forgotten his name."

Kaito gasped in shock. It really was her…

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry for the awkward parts, I've never had a boyfriend so I really don't know anything.<strong>


	11. Stained Water

**A New Beginning?**

**Chapter 11**

For the two of them time seemed to freeze and they stayed as they were for a number of minutes: Kaito with his mouth open and Aoko leaning towards him. The sound of thunder from the sky broke the silence and Kaito closed his mouth and tried to work out what to do.

It wouldn't so any harm if he confessed now and returned her feelings, would it? If she really was in love with him and he died in the next few days she would be upset whether or not he confessed or not. I always lived for the present when I was younger and never worried about the future he thought to himself. It wouldn't hurt and it would be wrong to leave her sad forever by ignoring her confession.

"Aoko…"

As he said her name Aoko spun round to hide her face from him.

"I'm sorry about forcing my feelings on you," she apologised and he could sense that she was on the verge of crying again. "Good night."

Before he could say anything she flipped off the light and the room was plunged into darkness. Kaito sighed inwardly and wondered if he should be glad that she had stopped him from answering as he didn't want to get too close to her now as there was a high chance that he would die in the next few days due to his participation in Hakuba's hare brained scheme.

"I remember the day I met my first love as well. It was when I was 7 and I went with my father: Kaito Kid, to case his next target, I was left outside under a clock tower and I met a girl who was also waiting for her father. I introduced myself to her and gave her a rose and fell in love with her. Sound familiar?"

There was another silence and he heard Aoko gasp and then sigh.

"I'm an idiot, aren't I?"

"Yes, you are," Kaito grinned and felt for her hand. He found it and clasped it tightly. "I would do the same trick again just to prove it, but it's dark."

"I wish I had met you again, before I met Him," Aoko said, wondering how differently events would have occurred if she had never fallen in love with the person that had ruined her life.

"I wish that as well, we wouldn't have been involved in this at all, or at least you wouldn't be. I think that I was destined to discover my father's secret sooner or later."

"But I'm glad we came here. I've managed to finally get some peace," she interjected. "Maybe when this is all over we can return here."

Kaito frowned, knowing that it would never happen one way or another. He searched for something suitable to say that avoided promising her anything and he eyes fell on the glowing number of the digital alarm clock next to him.

"Aoko, you're getting an early start tomorrow or rather today. I think we should get some sleep. It's 1:10am."

"You're right," she agreed sleepily. "But can we stay like this?" She indicated their joined hands.

"Yes."

7 hours later Kaito was jolted awake by the sound of the neighbour's dog barking.

"Damn dog," he cursed under his breath, "That's the fourth time he's woken me up."

As he gradually woke himself up and removed the vestiges of sleep from his eyes he realised that he wasn't in his own bed or even his own bedroom and he was surprised to find he was holding hands with Aoko. He blinked and the night's events came flooding back to him. He smiled to himself, remembering how he had had searched for the girl he had met under the clock tower for a month by returning there every day before giving up after a month. It seemed like a miracle that he had found her now and that she returned his sentiments.

Using his left hand he conjured up a single red rose and leaned over without letting go of Aoko's hand to wave it under her nose.

"Rise and shine to the smell of roses," he sang in a high pitched voice, the one he used to use when had to cross dress.

Her only response was to groan and roll over causing her to let of his hand. Kaito decided a more drastic method of waking up was required. He produced several more roses and placed them in her hair before suddenly pulling the cover off her.

This time she woke up instantly with a shiver and sniffed the air quizzically. "Why does it smell like roses? She asked without opening her eyes. "Kaito?"

"Yes, Aoko dear?"

She was definitely wide awake now. "I confessed last night and so did you," she grinned, then blushed.

Kaito couldn't help but find her embarrassed face cute and vowed that he would cause her to make that face at least 3 times before she left.

"Breakfast time," Kaito said, commando rolling off the bed. "You'll need your energy today so I will make you some chocolate chip pancakes."

Butterflies grew and twitched in Kaito's stomach every time he looked up at the clock in the living room. Hakuba had informed him that he would be picking Aoko up at 11:30am and it was now 9:30. 2 hours to go and he still hadn't plucked up the courage to even kiss her yet.

Aoko chose that moment to walk into the living room.

"Kaito, have you seen my- why are you frowning?" Is there something wrong?" she enquired worriedly, concerned about that fact he was just standing there staring at the clock with a frown on his face.

"Uh, I'll stop frowning if k-kiss me," he stuttered before giving her his best puppy dog look.

Aoko flushed red again stood up on tiptoes to give him and brief one on the cheek. As she stepped away from him he grabbed her back and leant down to give her a proper kiss on the lips. Her eyes widened momentarily and she relaxed into the kiss, noting amusedly that his lips still tasted of chocolate. Kaito himself was lost in the softness of her lips.

Their moment of bliss was punctuated by the sharp peal of the doorbell and they drew way from each other reluctantly and Kaito let go of Aoko.

"I'll go answer it. I'm expecting a parcel, I ordered something off the internet last week," Aoko informed him and rushed out of the room excitedly.

"Aoko," Kaito called before she could reach the front door.

She stuck her head around the door, "Yes?"

"Can we continue after?"

"Yes," she smiled and left the room again to answer the door.

Aoko grabbed the key for the front door from the bottom of the stair and unlocked it before opening it. Standing on the doorstep was not the usual local postman, but a tall man with silvery blonde hair attired in a black trench coat. He had a hat jammed over his eyes. However Aoko recognised him instantly.

"It's you," she breathed.

"Yes, it's me Aoko-chan. Would you mind doing me a small favour?"

Although Kaito couldn't hear the conversation between them as they were speaking in low voices he had a strange feeling of unease telling him that something bad was going to happen. And she did seem to be having a long conversation with the postman. He walked out into the hallway just in time to see Aoko slam the front door and run like hell was after her up the stairs, or rather he saw an Aoko-shaped blur. From the creaking of the floorboards he guessed that she had run to her bedroom Then as he went to go up the stairs she ran into the bathroom.

"Aoko?" he shouted up the stairs. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes, I just feel a little sick," a muffled voice rang out.

The sound of water being run in the bath became apparent as the force was increased. At this point Kaito began to get concerned. If she was feeling ill she wouldn't need to run a bath. He decided to leave her for a few minutes just in case he was being paranoid or hadn't heard her properly and was actually taking a bath.

5 minutes ticked by on the lock and she still wasn't out the bathroom the water was still running loudly and a loud splash occurred. On hearing the splash Kaito lurched into action coming, guessing what was going on.

Frantically he rushed up the stairs and tried the bathroom door which was locked. Fearing the worst he pilfered a hair pin from Aoko's dressing table and used to pick the lock to so he could get in/

A horrifying sight met his eyes. The bath water had flowed over the top of the bath and onto the floor and that water was strained red with blood. The body of a dark haired woman was lying face down in the bloody water and there were open slits criss crossing both her wrists. Her hair was slicked flat with the stained water.

"Aoko!" Kaito shouted hysterically, dropping down on his knees beside her. "Wake up!" he turned her body over and began compressing her chest to get her to breathe. "You can't die now. Wake up! Please!"

* * *

><p><strong> Thank you for all the reviews on the previous chapter from lion799 and GothicAngel09. I feel that my writing has improved a lot since I joined fanfiction 3 years ago. <strong>


	12. Rare Blood Type

**A New Beginning**

**Chapter 12**

After several frantic phone calls to the ambulance service and Hakuba later in between trying to get the body in the bathroom to breathe again, Kaito was in the back of an ambulance speeding away to the local hospital. In his panic he had called the Japanese number for an ambulance as he had completely forgotten the British equivalent and had had to call Hakuba to ask him for the correct number.

As they approached the hospital and the paramedics jumped put and wheeled the stretcher away Kaito spotted Conan waiting for him by the entrance. Conan waved to him, but Kaito didn't respond so he walked over to Kaito who was still sitting in the ambulance, feeling numb from the sudden suicide attempt.

Silently, without saying a single word or asking any questions Conan led him skilfully through the white corridors of the hospital passing nurses and doctors, to a plastic bench outside the operating theatre. He pushed Kaito onto the hard bench and walked off in search of something sugary to bring the normal Kaito Kuroba back.

Kaito sat there staring at the cork message board covered in faded poster encouraging children to be inoculated against Tetanus. He couldn't feel anything but shock from the suddenness of it all. He didn't even jump or flinch when Conan pressed a cold drinks can against his cheek.

"Here," Conan said, passing the Coca Cola can. "You need the sugar."

Kaito accepted it and felt the sugar rush through him after he took a few sips. He began to feel more alert now due to the caffeine and sugar kick.

"Do you have any idea why…?" Conan asked, leaving the rest of the sentence unfinished.

"We confessed to each other last night," he informed Conan who smiled slightly and nodded understandingly. "This morning she was happy, then she answered the door and after…"

As Kaito said the words Conan put the pieces together. It seemed as if Gin had arrived earlier than they had been informed and had probably coerced Aoko Nakamori into committing suicide by threatening Kaito's life.

"Kuroba, what did Hakuba tell you last night," the boy asked quietly after darting suspicious looks around to make sure there was no one to listen in. Luckily the corridor was deserted.

Doubtfully Kaito looked at him as if to ask why he was asking such a question, but he suspected there must be a sensible reason so he outlined the plan Hakuba had told him.

When he had finished Conan's fact twitched ad if he was trying not to smile. "You know that he was making the whole thing up?"

That made Kaito pull a face. "It did seem slightly implausible, but why did he tell me all those lies?"

"Your house is bugged," he stated plainly as if it was obvious. "You wanted the truth, but we couldn't tell you there so Hakuba and I agreed that he could make up anything as long as it kept you from asking any questions and would mislead The Organisation. Sorry."

Kaito was about to protest that he could have told him that the house was bugged before by writing it down and there was no need for Hakuba to come up with a plot that could have come from a Hollywood film when a nurse came rushing out the door of the operating theatre. Fear about Aoko's condition lurched through Kaito.

"What's wrong?" he called out to her, beginning to panic again.

"We've run out of blood for the woman. She needs a transfusion quickly or she will die," the nurse informed them. "Are any of you two willing to donate if your blood type matches?"

"He's the same blood type as her," Conan replied pointing to Kaito. "He's Type A."

"No, the patient is AB Negative."

Conan blinked in surprise at her words before subtly smirking and a glint passed through his eyes.

"I'm AB Negative and I'll donate."

Kaito watched as Conan and the nurse hurried down the corridor and sighed. Unlike Conan he couldn't do anything but sit there and wait to see whether she lived or died. Briefly he wondered how Conan had known his blood type and then he realised it was probably in his file. It seemed to him that he and Aoko were just files of information to convert into playing pieces on a chess board, pawns that could be controlled and manipulated to end up as sacrifices.

"Aoko, please don't die," he said aloud, clasping his hands together.

"How touching," a familiar sarcastic voice rang out and Kaito glanced up to see Sherry and Hakuba standing opposite him.

"Hakuba Did you see this one coming?" Kaito spat angrily. "If she dies…"

He stopped his threat when he saw that Hakuba did not resemble his normal self that he had become accustomed to seeing. His hair was unbrushed and he was wearing the same suit that he had been wearing the day before which was now crumpled.

"I'm very sorry Kuroba-kun," he apologised sincerely. "It seems that They arrived earlier than we were informed. I believe that the person that visited Nakamori-san this morning was Gin."

Kaito flinched at the name. Damn Gin, he was the sole person responsible for ruining Aoko's life and he swore that he would throttle him if he ever did get his hands on him.

"How did he persuade her to slit her wrists and I thought he was supposed to land in England tonight?"

Hakuba frowned; it seemed as if he had lost his major source of information of things that were occurring within The Organisation if she was transmitting false information.

"He most likely threatened to kill you if Nakamori-san did not commit suicide, They have a collection of snipers," he paused. "I think that my informant had been compromised."

"Is your informant Kir by any chance?" Haibara spoke up.

"Yes… How did you know?"

"She's been under suspicion for a while. They were only keeping her alive so she could feed inaccurate information which she thought was accurate to people like you that want to destroy them, she explained. "Judging by the fact that we all know now that the information is false she's probably dead and she has outlived her usefulness."

There was a silence as the detective and magician digested the information. Hakuba ruffled his already untidy hair whilst trying to think of what to do next and Kaito finished his drink.

"Where is Kudo-kun?" Hakuba asked finally.

Kaito looked down the corridor and spotted the Conan who was running his arm and the nurse from earlier who was carrying packs of blood. Conan sat down next to Kaito whilst the nurse swept past them into the operating theatre.

"Thank you for donating blood," Kaito said sincerely, bowing his head.

"It's all right," Conan smiled before turning serious. "Unfortunately we don't have the time to wait for her to wake up. We need to move now before They get the upper hand."

Hakuba nodded in agreement. "You have a pint, now that we now that some of Them are here we need to get moving now. Kuroba-kun, are you going to help us? We cannot do it without you."

Kaito glanced at him and then at the doors to the operating theatre. He didn't want to leave Aoko, not knowing whether or not she was going to survive. However he knew that nothing would be achieved if he didn't put any effort it.

"I'll help. On one condition."

"What is the condition?"

"I get to kill Gin." His eyes narrowed dangerously.

The blonde considered it for a few moments, adding up the possible dangers of allowing Kaito to have a free rein with Gin. He needed Kaito's help and he could understand why he wanted to go after Gin.

"Fine, but only if he tries to kill you or crosses your path- do not go after him deliberately," he ordered sternly.

Kaito nodded, it seemed fair enough. "What do I have to do?"

"Please go to this address," Hakuba passed him a scrap of paper. "Incapacitate the man you will find there and impersonate him. His codename is Bourbon and he is the agent that has always been here observing me. The disguise and the stun gun that you will need is in the boot of my car along with a normal gun and a Kaito Kid outfit in case anything should happen."

"Got it," Kaito said as he memorised the address and set fire to the note using the lighter in his pocket. "What do I do if he isn't alone?"

"He should be alone since he is primarily a spy and not a field agent and they will probably contact him for help as he is the only person familiar with this village. If he is not alone give me a call."

Hakuba turned to Conan. "Please call your American friends and them that the time they have been waiting for has come." Then he switched his attention back to Kaito. "You need to go as soon as possible."

"I would if I knew which car was yours."

Hakuba blinked the shock of a near suicide and the stress of everything else as building up and he was beginning to forget small things. He dug in his pocket and threw his car keys to Kaito.

"It is the Porsche."

"Figures."

Kaito started walking away, and then he stopped and turned back, having just thought of something.

"Hakuba, do you have a plan or are you just making it up as you go along?"

"That is the plan. They are expecting me to have a plan so I decided to do the opposite."


	13. Corn Syrup

**A New Beginning:**

******Chapter 13**

The agent known as Bourbon should have known better than to leave a window open and not to investigate suspicious noises which he would have heard if he had not had headphones and was not listening into audio feed from various planted bugs.

It had been a simple matter for Kaito to gain entry though the already open window, sneak up behind him and to know him unconscious with a jab from the stun gun. He handcuffed Bourbon's arms and legs to his bed upstairs and blindfolded him as an extra precaution.

Once he had darkened his skin tone and a put on the wig and Bourbon's clothes he sat down at Bourbon's computer and wiggled the mouse as the screen had gone blank in the time he had taken to secure him. When the screen came back on he saw that he had a whole list of choices for camera feed to watch as well as audio feed.

He scrolled down the list of camera feed and clicked #hospital just to see how many cameras there were and a selection of locations and camera angles popped up including one of Hakuba sitting alone outside the operating theatre. Kaito cursed out loud. The village really was under surveillance. He closed down the feed and checked the list to see if his house was an option. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was not.

As he was checking to see if there were any bugs inside the hospital the mobile phone lying on the desk rang and he realised that he couldn't impersonate Bourbon on the phone as he had never heard his voice, but he couldn't ignore the call either as the person on the other end would know that there was something going on so he pressed the green phone icon and held it to his ear after noting that the caller ID said "unknown".

"Oi, Bourbon, have they made any moves next? I'm getting bored here," a synthesised voice spoke as soon as he picked up the call.

The fact that the voice had been disguised gave Kaito hope. If synthesising your voice on the phone was the policy in The Organisation then he should be able to get away with impersonating Bourbon.

"No, they haven't made any moves yet," he answered, assuming that "they" was himself, Hakuba and Conan. He wondered if the person he was talking to was Gin or another agent.

"Well, I would have thought that getting Nakamori to kill herself would have gotten Kid to do something. After all he did say that he was going to kill me."

So the person he was taking to was Gin, Kaito thought and since he hasn't reacted to my voice it must come out synthesised on his end.

"They are all sitting outside the operating theatre. There hasn't been any movement yet."

"Hm, Strange, I thought that they would have a plan at least knowing the blonde brat," Gin surmised. "Call me when any of them leave the hospital."

Kaito decided to risk it and push for a little information.

"Where are you now?"

"Sitting in the car in the next town waiting for the sun to go down or until they start making a move. I'm getting bored out of my brain and Vermouth is up to something and I can't get hold of her," Gin complained before hanging up.

Kaito pondered the significance of the time of day that would cause The Organisation to make a move. He recognised the name Vermouth though. The name had come up a lot when he had been investigating The Organisation: apparently she was a favourite of the boss and could get away with doing a lot of things that the others wouldn't be able to. The head of The Organisation must be serious about getting rid of us if they brought in Vermouth in addition to the others, Kaito mused.

After checking the location of the cameras he decided to give Hakuba a call not caring that phones weren't allowed to be switched on in hospitals- he knew Hakuba would have his on.

The detective picked up after the first rings.

"Hakuba, did you know that this place is crawling with cameras? I can even see you right now."

"Last time I checked before you arrived there were none. They must have added them after they became aware that you two were here," Hakuba said thoughtfully.

"Gin called."

"Did he guess that you were not Bourbon?

"Both our voices were disguised, I knew it was him though from some of the things that he said," Kaito informed him. "I managed to gain a location for him. He's in the next town waiting for us to make a move or until this evening."

"Hmm… Did he say anything else?"

"He said he had lost track of Vermouth."

Hakuba groaned. "Damn, that woman is involved. She is good at sniffing out traps. But I still don't know much about her. She is a dark horse."

"Ask Sherry," Kaito suggested. "She's just about to walk around the corner. Oh, and what am I supposed to do now?"

"Search his house, copy the date from his computer and keep an eye on everything. I will call you later when Nakamori-san is out of surgery."

Hakuba ended the call and eyed the reddish blonde haired 7 year old in front of him and debated how he should go about his questioning. They had never really had a proper conversation before as they usually ended in snipes and insults and she had only arrived the day before. He decided to go for the direct approach.

"Vermouth."

The girl's pupils dilated and she flinched. "W-Where?" she stuttered spinning her head around to look behind her.

"Kuroba has informed me that she is involved and I wondered if you knew her," he said casually, intrigued by her reaction.

She shuddered and gulped nervously before replying.

"She's a master of disguise, she can get away with anything that she likes because she is Anokata's favourite and she was one of the first members to be recruited, for her age she looks surprisingly young, she's not well liked by a lot of people and Gin especially hates her," she reeled off quickly. "That's all I know. Please don't ask my anything else."

Hakuba narrowed his eyes and ignored her request. "Why are you so scared of her?"

Haibara started to shake so Hakuba sat her down next to him and pattered her head. He prayed that Kaito was not watching them now.

"She killed my parents and threatened to kill me if my productivity ever went down," she said eventually when she had stopped shaking. "She has hounded me a lot over the years and I developed the ability to sense her even when she is in disguise."

"It's all right. She isn't going to hurt you and I will not let her," Hakuba said softly and wiped her nose with his handkerchief, praying even harder that Kaito really was not watching. Then he turned back to his normal businesslike self. "Did you finish the antidote?"

Haibara sat up and handed the handkerchief back.

"Luckily the hospital laboratory had all the right chemicals, but I don't know if it will work; it might just be temporary," she said and handed him a small pill.

"It does not matter really. It was a long shot to start with as you don't have your original data." He pocketed the pill. "I will give it to Kudo later."

After making his last phone call Conan sighed and yawned. At times like this he wished that he could get in contact with his father who could been able to come up with the perfect strategy, unfortunately his parent were unaware of what had happened to him and were living in an unknown location in South America to get some peace.

He scratched his head as he walked back through the hospital to the operating theatre on his way he met Hakuba and Haibara standing in front of the vending machine.

"Ah, there you are Kudo," Hakuba said, turning around to face him. "Nakamori-san is out of surgery and is unconscious, but you can g in and sit with her."

"Which room is she in?"

Hakuba pointed to the open door opposite him. Conan entered and closed the door behind him. Silently he regarded the dark haired woman lying still in the bed with bandages around her wrists and her heartbeat registered on a machine next to her. Her hair was still soaked red from earlier and Conan leaned in to sniff it analytically.

"Corn syrup and food colouring" he muttered to himself, and then he spoke in a louder voice. "You can open your eyes now, Ran."

The woman in the bed opened her eyes slowly and looked at him.

"Hello Shinichi."


	14. Subsitute

**A New Beginning**

******Chapter 14**

"How did you know it was me and not Nakamori-san, we're almost identical in appearance aside from the hair," Ran enquired quizzically as she attempted to sit up in bed.

"I'm your husband," Conan answered with a brief smile before pushing her back down.

"Shinichi."

"All right. First, Kaito described the scene of how he found you in great detail and the statement about the bathroom being flooded struck me as strange, there was no need to flood it if you just wanted to slit your wrists. You needed to for 2 reasons," Conan began, relaxing into his deduction stance with his hands in his pockets. "You needed to get your hair wet so he wouldn't notice that your hair was flatter than Nakamori-san's, I've noticed that the only difference between you two is that your hair is flatter than hers. You also needed to flood the bathroom so you could drown and lose consciousness so it wouldn't be noticed that you hadn't cut yourself very deeply."

"Go on, I've always liked listening to your deductions."

"To make it look like you had slashed your wrists properly, you put corn syrup and red colouring in the water," Conan lifted a strand of her hair gently. "Your hair smells of corn syrup as opposed to actual blood. Corn Syrup is a key ingredient of fake blood."

Ran smiled. "Is that all it took for you to know that it was me? You only knew what my hair smelled like when you came in here."

Conan shook his head. "I knew it was you before. The nurse told me your blood type and I donated. Kuroba and Nakamori-san are both Type A whereas we are both AB Negative."

Ran's eyes started to close and Conan grabbed her hand.

"I've been so worried about you since you disappeared and then now I've found you after you've done something completely reckless. What would have happened if Kuroba hadn't found you until later? You could have actually drowned or died from blood loss."

"I wanted to help that girl. She looked so sad and frightened after that nasty looking man visited her, I overheard their conversation so I climbed in through the window, made her leave and slit my wrists in her place," Ran said tiredly.

Conan kissed her lightly on the cheek and let go of her hand. "I think you should sleep for now, but before that, where is Nakamori-san?"

"She's in the house which I've been living in which is next door to hers. I got Sonoko to help me with this plan and she should be with her now."

Her eyes closed properly and her face relaxed as she fell asleep. Conan pulled her covers up a little higher to keep her warm and sat on the edge of her bed for a few minutes.

"Sonoko is going to kill me," he said out loud.

Should he tell Kaito that Aoko Nakamori was still alive, he asked himself. Or should I respect Ran's wishes and keep it quiet? In any case he needed to see her to tell her to stay where she was and not get involved in anything else- that meant seeing Sonoko as well.

"Hakuba, where is Kuroba now?" Conan asked as he exited Ran's room and lsoed the door behind him.

Hakuba swallowed his mouthful of tea to answer. "He found that Bourbon has had most places here under surveillance so I have asked him to destroy all the cameras in case other members can see the feed. Sherry had destroyed the ones here."

Conan nodded. "I suspected that we were being watched. Anything else?"

"Gin is in the next town waiting for us to start doing something or until this evening. I also got Sherry to make a trial antidote," Hakuba informed him, holding out the pill. "I thought it might come in useful."

Conan met his eyes unhappily. "You can't be thinking of that… I suppose it would work, but I will only do it as a last resort- disguising as Kid to become bait is not an attractive prospect."

Hakuba handed the antidote to a reluctant Conan who put it in the pocket of his trousers. "How is Jodie Starling-san?"

"She is very eager to come here, but I've told her to stay in the next town until I contact her. If They sniff even the slightest presence of the FBI then They will withdraw. I suppose we could get her to plant a tracker on Gin's car if they are in the same town, but we don't know his exact location or what car he is in."

"Porsche 356A," Haibara broke in. "He is very particular about always being in that car as its presence signals danger to anyone that knows it is his. I'm sure he would have shipped it overseas with him. It's quite conspicuous in Japan, but here… Even Hakuba-san has a Porsche."

The two detectives exchanged hopeful looks.

"I'll go back outside and call Jodie-san," Conan said eagerly, as he had decided that he would go to Sonoko's house and he needed an opportunity to go that didn't seem suspicious.

"Please be careful Kudo, some of Them might be around even if Gin is not here," Hakuba called after him as Conan ran round the corner before anyone could say anything.

5 minutes later a heavily panting and sweating 7 year old boy rang the door bell of the house next to Kaito and Aoko's. As he waited for someone to answer it he noted the opportune location of a large heather bush below Aoko's window which also looked slightly squashed, indicating that someone had landed in it. His eyes then surveyed the ivy growing on the wall.

It would have been an easy matter for someone athletic like Ran to climb up the ivy and break in, he thought to himself. She might have done it instantly after overhearing Gin and Nakamori-san's conversation.

He became aware as he switched his attention back that the door had been opened and Sonoko was glaring down at him.

"Oh, it's the detective geek. I've got something to say to you," she narrowed her eyes further and dragged him into the house.

"Where is Nakamori-san?" he asked as he was pulled along.

"In here," she replied, dragging him into the living room.

A surprising sight met his eyes. He had been expecting just to see Aoko, but instead he saw her sitting in between a tall dark skinned Japanese man wearing a baseball cap indoors and a Japanese woman with pale skin and black haired tied back with a green ribbon.

"What's going on?" Conan demanded. He had just wanted to stop by, but now it looked like he was going to have to stay longer and explain himself to other people as well.

Sonoko gripped him by the back of the neck.

"I should be the one asking you that question. Why are you so small? And why are there murderous men in black roaming the streets?"

"Conan-kun, I haven't told them anything," Aoko interjected hastily. "I don't want anyone else to end up sacrificing their lives for mine. How is Ran-san?"

"She's out of surgery, but she is a little weak at the moment."

Aoko bowed her head. "I'm so sorry about it. I was about to go in the bathroom when I heard a noise by the window so I went to have a look and the next thing I knew I was falling onto a heather bush and Sonoko-san then dragged me here despite my protests."

"What is going on here Kudo?" Sonoko rephrased her earlier question.

Conan's eyes shifted towards the two unknown people on the room. Matters for him were becoming increasingly complicated especially now that unexpected people were involved.

"Who are the people?"

Dismissively Sonoko waved the hand that she wasn't using to grip Conan's beck. "You can say anything in front of them. They're in the same line of business as you. They run a detective agency."

The dark skinned one stood up and introduced himself in a broad Kansai dialect.

"I'm Heiji Hattori. Nice to meet ya."

"I'm his partner Kazuha Toyama," his partner stood up and followed his example."

"Who hired you?" Conan asked, ignoring their greetings. There was no time for pleasantries; he had to get back to the hospital before anything was suspected.

Heiji blinked. "Ya wife hired us ta find ya, ahou."

Behind him Sonoko tightened her grip on his neck.

"You disappeared off the face of the earth and Ran was so worried about you so she hired those two to find you."

"How did you find me?"

"We looked into everything ya had left behind like call logs, emails and receipts and discovered ya had been in contact with a certain Saguru Hakuba so we switched our attention ta him and found he had been seen around a boy the resembled ya."

Sonoko took up the explanation. "It was the only lead they had found so we followed it up ourselves and bought this house a month ago to observe you. Ran confirmed that it was you so we were left with the problem of working out how you had shrunk so we hired those two again to look into your most recent case. Then 3 days ago they warned us that we could be in danger."

Out of worry Conan checked his watch and saw that it had been 15 minutes since he had left the hospital.

"I got involved in something I shouldn't have and paid the price- Nakamori-san can tell you the rest and please could you all go back to Japan now or at least stay put and don't go out. I've got to go."

He shook himself free of Sonoko and tried to make a run for it only to find that he had been grabbed by a dark skinned hand.

"Not so fast Kudo. I'm comin' with ya."

* * *

><p><strong> Ahou: idiot <strong>

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed the past couple of chapters.**


	15. Bullet Wounds

**A New Begining**

**Chapter 15**

In the end Conan completely forgot that he had been planning to call Jodie as he was lumbered by the presence of a very demanding Osakan on his way back to the hospital who would not stop asking questions.

"For the last time Hattori," Conan sighed as they got closer to the hospital. "I'm not going to tell you anything. Go back to Japan and take your girlfriend with you. It's for your safety and hers."

"Oi, she's not my girlfriend and I'm not leavin' until you tell me what's goin' on here Kudo. I wouldn't be doin' my job a detective if I leave now."

On hearing this Conan relented. "All right. I'll get someone to tell you as I am a little busy at the moment."

Giving the persistent detective to the sarcastic and aggravating Sherry seemed to Conan to be the perfect solution and revenge for all the questions from Heiji.

Heiji fell silent. "Okay."

With amusement Conan watched Haibara's mental assessment and sizing up of Heiji Hattori: evidently she wasn't impressed as she sniffed and returned to reading a fashion magazine.

"Where's Hakuba gone?" Conan asked looking around.

Haibara looked up puzzledly. "A few minutes ago he was here then he had a phone call and went outside looking for you."

"But I didn't call him… Shit, it's a trap," Conan deduced hurriedly and ran down the corridor with Heiji chasing after him.

The feeling that someone was watching him passed through Hakuba as he walked through the car park looking for Conan. He spun round to see behind him and found that there was no one there. He shook of the feeling and continued on.

"Where are you? You said you wanted to talk to me," he called out.

"Hakuba!"

He heard a shout and turned round to see the person he was looking for and a strange man rushing towards him.

"Rooftop to your left," Conan shouted. "Sniper."

Hakuba looked up just in time to see a black clad sniper fire at him. He ducked and the bullet flew over his head. Quickly he drew his Beretta from his shoulder holster and fired 3 shots in the sniper's direction and threw himself behind a nearby car.

"Stay back Kudo!" he yelled, realising that Conan and the unknown man would be targeted if they got any closer.

He poked his head cautiously around the cat to verify the sniper's whereabouts. He glimpsed the sniper pick up his gun and run out of view. He stepped out from behind the car.

"Why did they leave?" he asked, noting that Conan was using the telescopic lens on his glasses to survey the area where the sniper had been.

Conan clicked the button on the side of his glasses and the lens cleared.

"One of your bullets hit him in the arm so he retreated."

"Him?"

"Yes," Conan said. "I managed to get a good look, it was Korn."

"If ya shot him in the arm then he shouldn't be able ta use a gun," the strange dark skinned man inserted himself into the conversation abruptly.

Hakuba eyed him up. "Kudo, who is this person?"

"I'll explain later," Conan said as he pulled out his mobile phone from his pocket. "If he's injured then there s a high chance he will go to Bourbon so I need to warn Kaito."

* * *

><p>Kaito was in the delicate process of searching the bathroom for any hidden compartments when his phone rang in his pocket. He checked the caller ID before answering praying for good news about Aoko.<p>

"Kudo, has Aoko woken up yet?"

"No... Anyway Hakuba just shot a sniper named Korn and he might be on his way to you now. Please incapacitate him," Conan instructed. "Be careful."

The doorbell pealed as he spoke, highlighting the urgency of the situation.

"Uh- I think that's him now."

"Do you think you can pull of a Bourbon impersonation?"

"Yes, I know his voice now- he woke up earlier and yelled abuse at me. Bye."

Hastily Kaito ended the call and sprinted down the stairs to open the door.

On the doorstep a man with grey hair, dark sunglasses and a frown was waiting with blood dripping from a wound on his arm. Kaito didn't recognise him at all and realised that he had never known enough to bring down The Organisation on his own.

"Oh, it's you," Kaito greeted, praying that his voice and character were correct.

"The blonde detective brat shot me in the arm. Can you stop the bleeding so I can go finish him off?" Korn demanded, already pushing his way in.

Kaito recalled glimpsing a first aid kit in the bathroom cabinet and he knew how to treat shot wounds as had clear memories of the times when he had had to dig out the bullets himself.

"Yes," he replied, closing the door and leading the sniper towards the sofa. "Give me a second to fetch the necessary implements."

Korn grunted and sat up straight on the sofa and elevated his arm to reduce the flow of blood whilst he was waiting, not caring that he was dripping blood over the sofa and onto the carpet.

In the bathroom Kaito retrieved the first aid kit and made a fast decision. He would treat the sniper, then knock him out- he didn't want the man to be dripping blood everywhere whilst he was unconscious and Hakuba had given the impression that he wanted him alive. Besides, after seeing Aoko's unconscious body the bloody bathroom he didn't feel like watching blood seep slowly out of anyone even if they were a member of The Organisation.

Kaito examined and scrutinised Korn's injured arm with an experienced eye. One of his least favourite things about being shot, aside from the excruciating pain, was having to dig out the bullet if it was still trapped in the flesh. Luckily in this case there was an entrance and exit wound proving that the bullet had passed straight through the arm and had not ricocheted off any bone. He put the long tweezers down and picked up some gauze instead.

"This may hurt a little," he warned and applied pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding.

To his credit the sniper didn't wince or groan but swore quietly under his breath, "Damn woman, it was a bad idea in the first place."

"What happened?" Kaito asked sharply as he began to wind a bandage around the fresh gauze he had just applied.

"We were waiting for the order from Gin as he is leading this time, when Vermouth called to say that there had been a change of plan. She told me to kill the blonde, gave me directions to the location and lured him out somehow, but he spotted me and shot me. It was obvious that it was never going to work as they are all on edge and paranoid. Then again Vermouth has been strange recently," Korn explained as Kaito finished wrapping the bandage and tucked the end in.

"Really?"

His ears pricked up and he made up his mind to wait a little while to let the man gossip before using the stun gun. He might say something useful.

"She had been interested in this assignment for a while, but it wasn't really for an agent like her until Sherry defected and it was given to Gin due to his history with Sherry and she insisted on tagging along, but she hasn't really done anything until 15 minutes ago which isn't like her."

"What do you think is the reason?" Kaito asked as he began to pack up the first aid kit.

"She is either bored or lost heart," Korn concluded. "Why are you asking so many questions? I thought she visited you yesterday."

Now the sniper was beginning to grow a seed of suspicion and Kaito knew he wouldn't be able to get anything else out of him.

Skilfully, he dropped the stun gun that had been concealed up his sleeve into his hand and neutralised the agent before he could say anything else. Korn slumped in his seat and his arm dropped into the pool of blood on the sofa.

Kaito breathed a sigh of relief then realised he was going to have to clean up all the blood and have to find another place to secure a member of The Organisation so he couldn't escape.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry for the late update- I had an accident with a knife which rendered me unable to type temporarily. <strong>


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